I don't normally like to respond to anonymous kooks, but... cpunk@remail.ecafe.org (ECafe Anonymous Remailer) writes:

AT&T Spokesman Matt Blaze writes: blah blah

...

There are (basically) no restrictions on the use or distribution of the (very simple) code.

This is simply untrue. Read the fine print in the file. Use this code and you owe them big. They'll "reach out and touch" you big time. If they were serious, they'd gpl it.

Since I don't understand what you're talking about, I can't really respond to it. The only restrictions on the use of this code are that you have to acknowledge where it came from and that it comes with no waranty. You also have to keep the notice in place on any copies you give to anyone else. Just like the GPL, only without the nutty requirement that you also give away your own source code.

...

Get it from: ftp://research.att.com/dist/mab/quantize.shar

The quantize package is also part of Jack Lacy's cryptolib package (watch this space for details).

I don't understand why this group continues to tolerate these blatently commercial messages from att (and netscape.) (The message is really just an ad for the cryptolib product, as it says). I've also said this b4 but I'll say it again: why would anyone in their right mind trust binary code from att after the clipper fiasco.

I think you're confused. AT&T Bell Labs Research (which is soon to be split into two parts, Bell Labs and AT&T Labs, owned by two different companies starting next year) is a research laboratory. A lot of very good cryptology and security people work here. While AT&T (the parent company) is in the products and services business, AT&T Bell Labs doesn't sell any products or services itself. Like most of the computer science researchers in Bell labs (and like those in universities and elsewhere), I publish the results of most the work that I do (modulo some consulting I do for the moneymaking part of the company in order to "pay the rent"). I (like many other researchers) also sometimes create software in the course of my work. When this might be of use to others, I prefer to give it away rather than let it sit idle on my disk. The quantization code (like CFS, swIPe and others) is an example. CryptoLib is another example; it was created by my colleague Jack Lacy. We give that away, too. Bell Labs doesn't advertise anything. We don't have retail customers. Our research software is unconnected with AT&T's commercial activities. We make it available because that's what members of the research community do. Its distribution is neither purely altruistic nor especially mercenary. If you really like our research software, I guess you can switch your long distance service to AT&T or buy an AT&T answering machine or something. But that part of the company is very remote from my food chain. I'm from the part of the company that _spends_ money. Other parts _make_ the money.

And why do we tolerate Jeff Weinstein and Mat Blaze calling themselves cypherpunks, when they are so clearly just working us for their corporate interests?

Again, I think you're confused. Jeff Weinstein works for Netscape, not AT&T. I think there's a connection between AT&T and Netscape somewhere (like we bundle netscape with worldnet service), but I don't really know the details.

I wonder how much they get paid to monitor this list?

I can't speak for Jeff Weinstein, but in my case, not nearly enough. -matt "I'm from The Phone Company and I'm here to help you."