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Waco FU-CU
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Tim's mention of cypherpunks reaction to Waco savagery at the time prompts an offer of the NYT firebrand today on nationwide reaction to the film, "Waco: The Rules of Engagement," which is revealing an upsurge in anti-government questioning of the official story, and "not just from the wacko right" says one of the leftist filmmakers: http://jya.com/waco-rules.htm Audience members boo Attorney General Reno and "any other figure of authority in the film." For the officials' growing record of the "still smoldering story," see the Treasury Deapartment's file on the Waco Administrative Review Group Investigation: http://jya.com/treas-do-waco.txt It's fair to guess that FBI has a similar cache on deer-killing dissidents in the national interest, but it's not flaunted to wolf-freak the sheep in the feebs "privacy" file, unlike Treasury's baiting of "for law enforcement use only" -- Tim's aptly acronymed FLEUO replacing FU-CU.

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W3C on PICS
by nobody＠neva.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

http://www.collegehill.com/ilp-news/reagle.html f r o n t p a g e | a b o u t | b a c k i s s u e s | s u b s c r i b e | a d v e r t i s e The ILPN discusses PICS with Joseph Reagle of the W3 Consortium August 18th 1997 Joseph Reagle Jr. joined the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in October of 1996 to focus on policy issues related to the development of global technologies and their relationship to social and legal structures. Specifically, how to promote "good" engineering when applied to a multifaceted and often contentious policy environment; one result of this activity is the W3C Statement on Policy. Mr. Reagle has also been working on filtering, digital signature, intellectual property rights management, and privacy capabilities on the Web. He has also been an active contributor to the development of the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3) project at the W3C. P3 will enable computer users to be informed and to control the collection, use and disclosure of their personal information on the Web.ÿ ILPN: How does PICS work? The Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) is an infrastructure for associating labels (metadata) with Internet resources. It was originally designed to help parents and teachers control what children access on the Internet, but it also facilitates other uses for labels, including code signing, privacy, agents, and intellectual property rights management. PICS allows organizations to easily define content rating systems, and enable users to selectively block (or seek) information. The standard is not a rating system (like MPAA or RSACi), but an encoding method for the ratings of those systems. Those encoded ratings can then be distributed with documents, or through third party label bureaus. ILPN: Can you summarize the origin of PICS as well as the coalition behind [Related Links] its development? What role is W3C playing in the The World Wide Web ongoing development and Consortium PICS Site promotion of PICS? Family Friendly During 1995, a number of activities occurred that Internet...The White were related to concerns House Internet Content of children accessing Filtering Plan. potentially inappropriate Web content: Australian Anti-PICS Site 1. The Senate Judiciary Committee heard Ratings Now, testimony regarding the "Protection of Censorship Children From Tomorrow...from SALON Computer Pornography Act of 1995" (S. 892) ACLU Press Release 2. The Information on the July White Highway Parental House Summit Empowerment Group (IHPEG), a coalition Foucault in of three companies (Microsoft Cyberspace: Corporation, Netscape Surveillance, Communications, and Sovereignty and Progressive Hard-Wired Censors ... Networks), was formed an absolute must read to develop standards article from James for empowering Boyle, a law professor parents to screen at WashingtonÿCollege inappropriate network of Law, content. AmericanÿUniversity. 3. A number of standards for content labeling were proposed including Borenstein's and New's Internet Draft "KidCode" (June 1995), the Voluntary Internet Self Rating by Alex Stewart and NetRate by Peter Wayner. 4. A number of services and products for blocking inappropriate content were announced, including Cyber Patrol, CyberSitter, Internet Filter, NetNanny, SafeSurf, SurfWatch, and WebTrack. By August, the standards activity was consolidated under the auspices of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) when the W3C, IHPEG, and twenty other organizations agreed to merge their efforts and resources to develop a standard for content selection. The intent of the PICS project was to demonstrate that it was possible and better for individuals and families on the Internet to have control over the the information they receive, rather than creating a national framework for censorship. Today, the W3C believes PICS-based technology can fulfill the requirements of mediating access potentially offensive or illegal content. The next big step is educating the users on how to use those technologies. For the future, we are working on the Resource Description Framework as the basis for a richer metadata infrastructure. Applications such as our P3 privacy project will use it to enable sites to make privacy statements. ILPN: Can you describe the difference between 'labeling' 'filtering' and 'blocking,' and why this set of distinctions might be important? Paul Resnick's PICS Options FAQ has a very good answer to this question and some of the others that you ask. To summarize, labels are statements. They have the capability to describe a Web page, or to make any arbitrary assertion. Obviously, people can use such information to block, or select what they want to see. To generalize, one can use metadata to "rate" a Web page with respect to some rating system. Given ratings, a user applies a filter (her preferences about the ratings) to determine which pages are most appropriate; some action is associated with the result of the filtering. The common result is the blocking or selection of a page, but the user could also be presented with a list of sites sorted according to her preferences. ILPN: What do you make of the opposition by EFF, the American Library Association and the Electronic Privacy Information Center to PICS? Do you see PICS as a bulwark of free speech, or simply as the lesser of two evils (the other being government regulation)? I would characterize the response from each of those organizations differently, and of course my response is based on my own understanding of that position:ÿ 1. The ALA does not oppose PICS or filtering in general. I believe they acknowledge its usefulness as a means of parental empowerment, but do not feel it is appropriate for installation on every computer by default in their libraries. I respect this point of view while acknowledging that libraries may have requirements placed upon them by their constituencies or by the law with respect to illegal materials; it is up to the libraries, their constituencies, and governments to appropriately resolve these concerns. 2. I personally like the direction the EFF took in working on "Public Interest Principles for Online Filtration, Ratings and Labelling Systems" and hope to see such efforts continue. The W3C feels that metadata is necessary to the Web. Hence, I think it is somewhat naive to criticize the capability to support metadata. While I do not agree with every position in the EFF document, I liked it because I think it is more constructive to discuss how that metadata infrastructure can be best used (or how to prevent abuse) rather than trying to hobble the Web. 3. I, and my colleagues at the W3C, encourage rigorous discussion on the use of filtering technologies and how they affect individuals' rights. I do not buy the slippery slope argument that all technology which governments could use to do "bad things" must not be developed. I do not see PICS in grand terms; PICS is an application of metadata, as I explain elsewhere. To respond to the later question I do prefer the capability to exclude unwanted speech over the suppression of it at its source. Also, metadata itself is speech -- having the capability to laud, critique and criticize others is fundamental to a robust society. ILPN: How likely is it that PICS-based software will be mandated by governments at the level of ISPs? Unknown. Also, governments could theoretically do a number of things such as : * create rating systems * determine filtering criteria * require the use of filtering technology in servers or in clients * require the use of certain rating systems, etc. They can accomplish this by legislative action, by interpreting existing statutes, by promoting self-regulatory structures, or by providing incentives to comply with the policies by attaching liability, or removing it, to the players involved. Even with a specific question in hand, it would be a difficult task to predict the path of any nation. ILPN: Are you concerned with the potential abuse of PICS by governments and/or employers? Yes. I personally would protest or subvert my employer's or government's efforts in applying mandatory filters against my will; I do use filters to select content I am interested in and to get rid of spam and bozos. Regardless of my personal opinion, the W3C does not have the competency to tell other organizations what their policies should be. We can tell them about the technology and consequences of its use, but what they do with it is their choice obviously. ILPN: What about the possibility that a third-party labeling organization will obtain too much power? In terms of an independent third party? Let the market decide. If there are monopolistic concerns, a nation may wish to apply anti-trust laws. If it is a political entity, I hope it has some mechanism for being held accountable to its constituency. ILPN: We tend to think of PICS in terms of excluding materials deemed offensive. What are more 'positive' possible applications of PICS? PICS is merely one application of "metadata." Metadata means "data about data" and we are working very hard on this with our Resource Description Framework (RDF). This is a fundamental computer science concept and is essential to the future of the Web. Any time you wish to make a statement or an assertion, to rely upon a trusted opinion, it is "metadata." Our Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3) is another application of metadata. We wish to enable sites to make statements about their privacy practices so users are informed and can make choices about how they wish to interact with sites. A useful feature of metadata is that it is can be machine readable, so agents can act on behalf of the user, freeing the user to concentrate on higher order content and interactions. Hence, when I configure my agent, I should be able to search Web sites with the type of content I like, those which have privacy practices that I like, or that are referred to me by trusted third parties, and those that support the payment capabilities that I posses. ILPN: PICS seems to transform the web from an arena in which anything goes, and in which each individual must define his or her own participation, to an arena in which various 'cultures' can establish their own, separately designed comfort zones. Was this an intention of the PICS developers, or is it simply an unintended consequence of an effort to protect children? I donût know if this was an original, explicit intention of PICS, but it soon became apparent that this is what PICS was about: allowing people to create their own cultural boundaries on the Web. I look at a lot of what we do at the W3C as not only providing the basic infrastructure for exchanging hyperlinked documents, but we are providing the capability to have more sophisticated interactions with other users and agents on the Web -- homegrown cultures and societies. "Real world" entities may see these tools as ways of extending their own social structure onto the Web, and this is actually what a lot of the PICS debate is about in my opinion. We'll see how successful governments can be. In the meantime, the W3C does want to mitigate the possible fragmentation on the Web from either: 1) people dropping off it all together and creating their own, or 2) tearing it apart from fighting over whose cultural norms should prevail. I'll quote from the W3C Policy Statement on this point: ...This architecture must allow local policies to co-exist without cultural fragmentation or domination... http://www.w3.org/Policy/statement.html ILPN: Is W3C promoting the development of PICS into proxy server products? Yes. The PICS Options FAQ states that filter processing can be centralized at a proxy server while still permitting individuals to choose the filtering rules. I will qualify this by saying that it has never been the intent of the W3C to create technology for governments to use as a means of centralized control. Not that governments couldn't do such a thing (and there are other ways for them to do it if they wanted to), but that isn't our intent in working on this technology. ILPN:. What kind of legislation, and court cases, do you expect to see in the future regarding PICS? I expect to see continued activity in: 1. drawing the line between "illegal" and "inappropriate" content 2. determining what obligations services have in restricting illegal material 3. developing self regulatory structures for limiting childrens' access to "inappropriate" materialÿ (promoting a "family friendly internet.") ILPN: What should people maintaining web sites be doing regarding PICS and the various rating systems? Should people be rating their sites now? What might the consequences be for neglecting to rate one's site? Is it important for people to keep track of how their web sites are rated, and if so, how can they do this? Technologies, such as Microsystems Software's CyberLabeler, are being developed which follow the recommendations of the PICS specifications and make labeling sites much easier. Content creators that want to label should continue to demand such technologies and that such technologies be integrated into Web development applications. I expect that in the near future, many sites will be generated dynamically from databases; those databases will be indexed and structured by metadata. At which point, labels and rating will be integral to the creation of dynamic, customized sites. Search engines may also begin relying upon the useful information found in metadata to return more appropriate -- on "target" -- information to users. The consequence of not rating your site might be that if you have potentially illegal or offensive material you may draw regulatory attention upon yourself. Also, by not labeling you may be overlooked by those using filtering and content selection technologies. Most adult sites are more than happy to label and use filtering services, they want to attract those looking for the services they offerÿ while avoiding the difficulties associated with angry parents. ILPN:Thank you for your time. My pleasure. Send us your comments on this article Copyright 1997. All Rights Reserved f r o n t p a g e | a b o u t | b a c k i s s u e s | s u b s c r i b e | a d v e r t i s e

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Re: write up AP for FC++
by Zooko Journeyman 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

A million monkeys operating under the pseudonym "Steve Schear <azur(a)netcom.com>" typed: > > May I suggest that we abandon the term AP, as being too narrowly focused, > and use something more academic (looks better in FC's proceedings, anyway) > such as Anonymous Betting Pools, or some such? <snip> > Definitely. Also, a legal treatment would be nice (Broiles?). I've > posited that ABPs rely on elements of skill rather than chance to avoid > being tagged as gambling (e.g., Beat the Psychics). Actually ABP could be > viewed as an insurance policy. Um, as soon as you broaden AP from libertarian fantasy into rigorous hypothesis, it turns out that it _isn't_ _anything_ but Idea Futures/insurance/ABPs/(payee-anonymous) contract markets plus the murderous daydream junk. That is to say, from the rigorous (technical) point of view, AP _IS_ Idea Futures _IS_ ABPs _IS_ contract markets _IS_ insurance. TCMay has mentioned before that AP is nothing new... If you want some scholarly exposition, write up some definitive treatise on AP/IF/I/ABPs/CMs as such so that in the future crackpots who semi-independently come up with the idea won't be able to tie it to political fantasies or other specific would-be-applications in the (un-)popular consciousness. Zooko, whose prose is JYA'ifying in frustration P.S. Allow me to repeat in simple words: "'ASSASSINATION POLITICS' IS NOTHING BUT IDEA FUTURES PLUS CRACKPOT POLITICAL FANTASY!" P.P.S. I am not a cypherpunk. I'm only a guest! I didn't know there was marijuana in the brownies, officer! I didn't PGP sign this message. Nobody saw me do it -- you can't prove anything.

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Re: A problem with anonymity
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 2:27 PM 9/2/95, Buford Terrell wrote: >Actually, you guys are trying to repeat the whole history of the >law merchant (today's commercial law). The basic problem was how >can a buyer in one city acquire goods from a seller in another >through agents acting at a distance when neither knows the other >and neither is willing to risk loss on the transaction. Which might be why I specifically cited this last night in an article in this thread: "(Think of various trading situations where one has no idea of the True Name of the other parties: cash-and-carry transactions, flea markets, many international trade arrangements, etc. As we have discussed in past discussions of anarchy, the international trading regime is essentially an anarchy, in that no Higher Authority exists to resolve disputes in a top-down way...the so-called "Law Merchant" evolved to resolve disputes in such trading situations.)" Benson's "The Enterprise of Law" is of course a libertariant outlook on these matters. (I should mention that Michael Froomkin says he doesn't think much of it, but I found it useful, especially as it confirmed my views on these matters! :-}) --Tim May ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Re: A problem with anonymity
by monty.harder＠famend.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

TC> Oh, I agree, of course. Except that the escrow agent need not be a TC> "nonymous" agent, to use Monty's terminology here. Sorry, my Greek is rusty. Shoulda been "onymous", I suppose. But if the escrow agent is anonymous, we simply recurse, moving now to the question of whether anyone can trust the Anonymous Escrow Agency not to take the money and run. TC> (I mention banks because, when you look at it closely, today's banks can TC> quite easily claim that a customer made a withdrawal when he didn't. That TC> they don't says more about the nature of persistent businesses than about TC> any government oversight or security features. This is a side point, but it TC> bears keeping in mind that the real world of banks and businesses, etc., is TC> not fully secure, either. And yet it mostly works pretty well. The reasons TC> for this are interesting to consider.) A bank has $$ invested in impressive-looking buildings, (so that vanishing into the ether and setting up shop elsewhere is rather difficult) and several officers whose TrueNames are registered with the appropriate agencies, so that they may be sued if they pull this crap. While individual stockholders might appreciate the anonymity (and protection from legal action) of owning stock in a bank or escrow agency (might just combine the functions, while we're at it), they demand onymity of the officers with whom they entrust the keys to the corporation. * --- * Monster(a)FAmend.Com *

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Basic Public key algorithms.
by droelke＠rdxsunhost.aud.alcatel.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

After doing quite a bit of poking around, I am somewhat discouraged in my attempts to find a simple *pure* public key encryption method, without a lot of other stuff wrapped around it. What I need is to encrypt between 45 and 55 bits of information using a public key algorithm in an embedded environment. Memory usage needs to be minimal (a couple of K), and CPU usage will be tradded off based on key length. Decryption speed/memory usage is not very limited (done on a workstation, not on embedded system). I could use RSA (which is well described in many sources, and has RSAREF out there), but I want to avoid the patent issue if possible. The sci.crypt FAQ mentions that there are other methods but that is about all it says. Are there any that are not patented? Are there any that someone knows of that work well in a limited memory environment? Thanks for any/all pointers. Dan ------------------------------------------------------------------ Dan Oelke Alcatel Network Systems droelke(a)aud.alcatel.com Richardson, TX

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Re: Alex le Heux
by Alex Le Heux 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

In article <199708181919.VAA19973(a)xs2.xs4all.nl> you wrote: : Hey HEY! It's the man who nearly managed to single-handedly : derail the PGP legal export hack by playing the block rocking : beats (all vinyl) which inspired the vacationing hackers to : spill the drinks on the source books. What's a sourcecode book without a few drinks spilled on it? :) : Welcome to the list! Thanks :) : Zooko the Mysterieux : P.S. MP3 is coooool. CDNow.com needs to start selling MP3's : in return for digital cash small change! It does :) Much better than lugging all these CDs around. Or vinyl for that matter. We actually tried to get some mixing going with the BeOS MP3 player (which has pitch control), but it needs some more work before it's feasable :) Cheerio, alex -- /// I dabble in techno-house and sometimes, /// I do that badass hip-hop thang... /// But the F U N K gets me every time!

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FREE patent searches
by rishab＠dxm.ernet.in 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I haven't seen this here, so I'm forwarding it all: Date: Fri, 9 Sep 1994 09:32:15 -0400 From: srctran(a)world.std.com (Gregory Aharonian) Message-Id: <199409091332.AA16709(a)world.std.com> To: patents(a)world.std.com Subject: PATENT SEARCHING EMAIL SERVER is now open for business APS PATENT SEARCHING ARRIVES ON THE INTERNET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (well only in a real limited way for the time being :-) A few weeks ago, I announced plans to provide limited patent searching over the Internet, where you can get a list of patents by specifying the class/subclass. I have decided to do this in two stages. To test out the email-server software I am writing, I first plan to allow email requests to retreive parts of the PTO classification manuals (see below). Once things are running smoothly, I will then add the capability to retrieve patent titles by class/subclass. So feel free to start sending in requests to the address listed below: search(a)world.std.com wish me luck, and start thinking philanthropic. By the way, if someone has a machine readable version of the WIPO international classification system, please send it to me so I can add it to the server. At some point when I have lots of equipment, I will sort US patents by their international classification. Greg Aharonian Internet Patent News Service ==================== Internet Patent News Service September 1994 PATENT TITLES EMAIL SERVER search(a)world.std.com The Internet Patent News Service is pleased to announced the availability of the Patent Titles email server, where people can retrieve lists of patent titles dating back to 1970 for any USPTO class/subclass, and patent numbers for additional patents dating back to the 1800's. The Patent Titles email server is the first step in our efforts to make the entire USPTO APS patent text database system accessible over the Internet. Approximately one gigabyte of data has been prepared and attached to the Internet. As all of the equipment and network access is borrowed, I am limiting access to an email server until I get a better feel for demand for the data, and until I can raise funding to set up a proper Internet server. Unless the bandwidth and processing load overwhelms the equipment I am borrowing, the service will be free. To use the email server, send requests to the Internet address: search(a)world.std.com using any of the following commands sent as text in the body of the email message: SENDTO account-name(a)internet.site.adr This command is mandatory of all requests and is where you specify the email address you want the information sent to. Occasionally From: lines in email addresses do not provide a correct return address (at least in my experience doing the Internet Patent News Service). SEND INTRO SEND HELP Either of these commands will return this message. SEND UCLASSES This command will return an index to the approximately 400 patent classes that are currently being used, for example: Class: 69 Leather Manufacturers SEND UCLASS XXX This command will return that section of the USPTO's Manual of Classification covering patent class XXX. For example, the command "SEND CLASS 69" would return a list of all of the subclasses in Class 69 by number and title. These files range in size from 5K to 120K. What follows is a section of Class 69: Subclass Subclass Number Title 1 MACHINES 1.5 .Belt-stretching 3 .Horse collar shaping 4 .Horse collar stuffing SEND UCLASS COMPUTING This command will return those sections of the USPTO's Manual of Classification covering patent classes 395 and 364, the two main classes dealing with hardware and software. SEND IPNSINFO This command will return an introductory message to my Internet Patent News Service. SEND CONSULT This command will return an introductory message to my patent searching consulting services I offer. SAVE COMMENT This command lets me know your request is actually a comment about the email server operation, or any inaccuracies you detect in the patent information being sent out. As I am parasiting the equipment to run the server (which basically means that I operate the server at nite and on weekends), please send your requests in at the end of the workday or on weekends. Within a day or so, you will receive back ny email whatever you requested. SECURITY A very important concern for anyone using this email server is secrecy, that what they are searching for is not revealed to others. As a potential inventor, I appreciate this as much as anyone else. While I plan to save the email addresses of people who use the server (but not their search request), no other information will be retained. The email address information will be saved to study who, and how often, people are using the server. I would appreciate any suggestions on how to ensure security beyond this. Please excuse any mishaps that occur as I get this service off the ground. This email server is a classic hack that will get better in time as people use it. In turn, the experience gathered in running the server will be invaluable in demonstrating the feasibility of making massive amounts of patent data available over the Internet. Also, get ready for that voluntary registration fee I mention in my intro piece to the Internet Patent News Service. If the Patent Titles email server is successful, and you all like it, this fall I plan to coordinate an effort to put all of the patent abstract information since 1970 onto the Internet, making it available through email servers, Gopher, WAIS and Mosaic. But first things first, getting the Patent Titles email server working. Greg Aharonian Internet Patent News Service

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Crypto hearings via C-SPAN
by Greg Broiles 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism, and Government Information held hearings this afternoon on encryption; audio is available now at <http://www.c-span.org/>, I don't follow C-Span so I don't know how long they'll make the recording available. I haven't finished listening to the recording, but it so far has featured Senator Leahy and Louis Freeh reminscing pleasantly about their early-morning walks near Sen. Leahy's farm in rural Vermont, and Freeh talking about how the situation prior to the enactment of Digital Telephony looked bleak - but with the helpful intervention of Congress, a "balance" was achieved between privacy and law enforcement which has made everyone happy. Ahem. Key escrow is being compared to airbags in cars; they're discussing forcing crypto software authors to include key escrow in their software, and allowing users to "choose" to use it or not. -- Greg Broiles | US crypto export control policy in a nutshell: gbroiles(a)netbox.com | http://www.io.com/~gbroiles | Export jobs, not crypto.

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Netscape on randseed issue
by Stephan Somogyi 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Netscape has put up an official response to the randseed issue: <http://home.netscape.com/newsref/std/random_seed_security.html> Most interesting to me was the para: "Netscape has also begun to engage an external group of world-class security experts who will review our solution to this problem before it is sent to customers. These experts will validate Netscape's solution and insure that it is complete and effective in solving this vulnerability. The group will be used on an ongoing basis to work with Netscape's internal security experts to review the design and implementation of security in Netscape's products and to provide an additional measure of assurance that these products implement the highest levels of security possible." Anyone know anything about this group, or is this a reference to the RSADSI source review that Andrew Loewenstern mentioned earlier today? ________________________________________________________________________ Stephan Somogyi Think Tank Grenadier Digital Media

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