March 2020 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Two Chinese nationals indicted for hack of $100 million worth of cryptocurrency
by John Young 03 Mar '20

03 Mar '20

Two Chinese nationals were charged with laundering over $100 million worth of cryptocurrency from a hack of a cryptocurrency exchange. https://cryptome.org/2020/03/yinyin-indictment.pdf (1.8MB)

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Trump for President Sues New York Times for Untruth, Bias, Animosity
by John Young 03 Mar '20

03 Mar '20

https://cryptome.org/2020/03/trump-v-nyt-complaint.pdf Defendant The New York Times Company knowingly published false and defamatory statements of and concerning plaintiff Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., claiming it had an "overarching deal" with "Vladimir Putin's oligarchy" to "help in the campaign against Hillary Clinton" in exchange for "a new pro-Russian foreign policy, starting with relief from the Obama administration's burdensome economic sanctions." The Times was well aware when it published these statements that they were not true. The Times' own previous reporting had confirmed the falsity of these statements. But The Times published these statements anyway, knowing them to be false, and knowing it would misinform and mislead its own readers, because of The Times' extreme bias against and animosity toward the Campaign, and The Times' exuberance to improperly influence the presidential election in November 2020.

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US/CIA v. Joshua Schulte Jury Charge
by John Young 03 Mar '20

03 Mar '20

https://cryptome.org/2020/03/schulte-345.pdf (63 pages) "D. Adverse Inference You heard testimony from a Government witness named Michael, who the CIA placed on enforced administrative leave in August 2019. The Government only disclosed this information to the Defendant in the course of the trial. I instruct you that the Government should have disclosed the information regarding Michaels enforced administrative leave to the Defendant sooner. In evaluating the evidence, you can decide what weight, if any, to give to the Governments conduct on this issue. You may also consider whether Michaels appearance in Court and his testimony for the Government was influenced by his being on enforced leave." "E. Law Enforcement Officials You have heard testimony from a number of law enforcement officials. The Governments law enforcement witnesses do not deserve any more or less consideration, or greater or lesser weight than that of any other witness." "F. Central Intelligence Agency Witnesses You have also heard testimony from a number of witnesses who are either currently or were previously employed by the Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA. Some of these people work directly as officers of the CIA, and some of them work as contractors performing work for the CIA. I have allowed some of these witnesses to testify either by using a made-up namea pseudonymor just their first name. The disclosure of the witnesses true names and what they look like could potentially compromise their work at the CIA. Thats why those precautions were taken; but you should weigh the testimony of those witnesses just as you would any other witness, and not weigh it differently because they testified using a pseudonym or used their first name only." "G. Bias and Hostility In connection with your evaluation of the credibility of the witnesses, you should specifically consider evidence of resentment or anger which some Government witnesses may have toward the Defendant. Evidence that a witness is biased, prejudiced, or hostile toward the Defendant requires you to view that witness testimony with caution, to weigh it with care and subject it to close and searching scrutiny."

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Fwd: Bitcoin Loans. Zero Premiums
by Razer 03 Mar '20

03 Mar '20

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On healthy Libre/FLOSS communities - Blender by the numbers over 2019
by Zenaan Harkness 03 Mar '20

03 Mar '20

FLOSS/libre software which finds use beyond a niche, and therefore a relevant developer base, in time becomes first a viable option for one or another use case, later a viable replacement for one or more proprietary alternatives, and finally reaches a superiority in various metrics (features, stability, available dev/employee base from which companies can draw, etc). Some years back, folks thought 3D development environment software was too niche, too "technical" and therefore too costly to replace proprietary alternatives with libre software. Then Blender appeared in the early days of the kickstarter concept getting going, and readily raised the sought after $100K to free this (then proprietary) code. The rest as they say, is history, and Blender is a good case study for the floss progression chart - where exactly you would say it is on that chart, likely depends on you or your project's particular needs at this point in time. Blender by the Numbers – 2019 https://www.blender.org/press/blender-by-the-numbers-2019 One lesson at hand is that if your project or company is long term and not short term, then the sooner you and your team begin to get up to speed with, and contribute to, the floss alternative(s), the greater the head start you, your team and your company will have over the competition, at least in the long term. Identifying, for a particular technology/ software, the point at which medium to long term gains financially justify money spent in the short term on the floss/libre alternatives, is a skill that any competent manager has.

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German courts: "duty of neutral conduct with respect to ideological and religious matters"
by Zenaan Harkness 03 Mar '20

03 Mar '20

Germany's Federal Constitutional Court has ruled to "establish a duty of neutral conduct with respect to ideological and religious matters". The cause in this case was a female law student/ trainer lawyer wanting to wear a burka whilst conducting herself in normal court procedures as a lawyer or "court representative". This appears to be a foundational ruling - one which will have significance, and be referred to, for years to come - and possibly one which will stand as a leg to defend the "a-religious" nature of Western political (resting on legal) institutions. This ruling on the face of it makes no judgment about any particular religion (unless one cynically names "Western jurisprudence" a religion of course, as valid as such a perspective may be), only that religious expression or dominance is to not be a part of the (German in this case/ for the moment/ pursuant to this ruling) legal system. One can infer that to the extent litigants choose to bring before the courts any matters which they choose to couch as religious matters, for example the age of consent, that the courts will refrain from imposing the ideology of any particular religion as the foundation for their rulings and judgments in relation to such matters brought before the courts. Notably, this position taken by the German superior court does not inherently preclude religious arguments/grounds (either for or against) any particular matter brought before the courts, only that the courts ("ought not" at least according to this precedent) do not bring a pre-conceived religious foundation to its determinations of such matters. One can say that this precedent appears to be quite a neutral/ rational position for superior courts to take - essentially a precedent regarding jurisprudence itself, thus notable. When such rulings are made in clear terms, it is not uncommon for them to be referred to by folks in other jurisdictions (other countries) in future cases. German Court Rejects Attempt To Enshrine Sharia Law https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/german-court-rejects-attempt-enshrin… https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15658/german-court-rejects-attempt-to-en… ... "With this groundbreaking decision, the court sent an important signal in favor of the ideological neutrality of state institutions. Especially in today's society, in which people from many countries around the world live with different cultural biographies and also with different religions, the state order must place more value than ever on its ideological neutrality. This is only possible if the state parties to judicial proceedings are not allowed to show religious insignia."

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EOMA68 Computing Devices manufacturing update
by Zenaan Harkness 02 Mar '20

02 Mar '20

This bloke is evidently dedicated, that's for sure: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop/updates/2-7-5-manufacturin…

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Guilty Plea Of U.S. Accountant In Panama Papers Investigation
by John Young 02 Mar '20

02 Mar '20

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces Guilty Plea Of U.S. Accountant In Panama Papers Investigation https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/manhattan-us-attorney-announces-guilty… "Richard Gaffey went to extraordinary lengths to circumvent U.S. tax laws in order to maintain Harald Joachim von der Goltz's wealth and hide it from the IRS. Using the specialized criminal services of global law firm Mossack Fonseca, Gaffey assisted others in violating U.S. tax laws for decades. Since at least 2000 through 2018, GAFFEY conspired with others to defraud the United States by concealing his clients' assets and investments, and the income generated by those assets and investments, from the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") through fraudulent, deceitful, and dishonest means."

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Wikileaks: Julian Assange
by grarpamp 02 Mar '20

02 Mar '20

https://twitter.com/defendassange https://twitter.com/wikileaks https://defend.wikileaks.org/category/news https://collateralmurder.wikileaks.org/ https://collateralmurder.wikileaks.org/en/resources.html https://wikileaks.org/gitmo/ Julian Assange Chelsea Manning Edward Snowden Reality Winner ... Hundreds of names, all bc govt trying to save its sorry ass. No one really wants it. End it already. #FreeAssange

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Cryptocurrency: CBDC's Racing to Backdoor Distributed Cryptos
by grarpamp 02 Mar '20

02 Mar '20

https://qz.com/1810727/central-banks-are-researching-digital-currencies-to-… https://slashdot.org/story/20/02/20/1735215/sweden-starts-testing-worlds-fi… http://www.bis.org/publ/qtrpdf/r_qt2003.htm "Officials at central banks are considering how and whether to create a digital form of cash," reports Qz: As money gets swept up by tech innovation, government authorities are taking a closer look at old fashioned notes and coins. More than a dozen countries are either researching, piloting, or, like China, have ongoing work in place for central bank digital currencies, according to a Bank for International Settlements report published today. "Central banks around the world are investigating a rich set of prototypes," the BIS wrote... While physical cash isn't yet endangered in most places, the experience of a few countries, notably Sweden, China, and even to some extent the UK, shows that a world with much less cash usage is increasingly possible. That's why the BIS, sometimes called the central bank for central banks, published a report sketching out possible designs for a peer-to-peer central bank digital currency. Denounce and avoid these Fiat Spying and Censorship coins.

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