Jonathan Zamick wrote:
On the one hand, many people here see strengthening security and encryption in use as a no-holds benefit. The more that is out there, the better it is, and the more its in use, the better off things will be.
On the other hand, Netscape is a hot stock company. Its ok to work for recognition, and to donate time for the betterment of the community even if it profits others. (Eventually such things come around, which is the classic value of a net reputation.) However, when sudden, large profits hinge on your work, it is harder to take the philosophical route.
As a (partial) solution to this problem, how about if rather than continuing to poke holes at netscape, we start an effort to bring one of the free Web Browsers, say Mosaic or Athena into line so it can be used instead of Netscape to perform secure transactions. This way our efforts are still oriented toward better personal encryption and better transaction security, but our work doesn't so directly benefit a for-profit company (something I have very little interest in doing without being employed by that company.) Personally, I see one of the cypherpunk's main objectives is to increase the security and privacy of people using computers and networks. I think this effort would further that goal. Sure, Mosaic may not have 75% of the market share on Web browsers, but that's probably because it is missing some basic functionality like encryption. -- William