861 lines
41 KiB
Plaintext
861 lines
41 KiB
Plaintext
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Computer underground Digest Sun May 7, 1995 Volume 7 : Issue 36
|
||
|
ISSN 1004-042X
|
||
|
|
||
|
Editors: Jim Thomas and Gordon Meyer (TK0JUT2@NIU.BITNET)
|
||
|
Archivist: Brendan Kehoe
|
||
|
Shadow Master: Stanton McCandlish
|
||
|
Field Agent Extraordinaire: David Smith
|
||
|
Shadow-Archivists: Dan Carosone / Paul Southworth
|
||
|
Ralph Sims / Jyrki Kuoppala
|
||
|
Ian Dickinson
|
||
|
Goddess of Judyism Editor: J. Tenuta
|
||
|
|
||
|
CONTENTS, #7.36 (Sun, May 7, 1995)
|
||
|
|
||
|
File 1--PNEWS,cr,cj-5/7> Truth, Political Action, and Cyberspace
|
||
|
File 2--A solution to the digital copyright problem
|
||
|
File 3--New GRAY AREAS includes Cybernews & Notes
|
||
|
File 4--Vote FRO^H^H....(Ah, that ol' backspace) - (eye Reprint)
|
||
|
File 5--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 19 Apr, 1995)
|
||
|
|
||
|
CuD ADMINISTRATIVE, EDITORIAL, AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION APPEARS IN
|
||
|
THE CONCLUDING FILE AT THE END OF EACH ISSUE.
|
||
|
|
||
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
|
||
|
Date: Sun, 7 May 1995 13:55:15 +0000
|
||
|
From: Richard K. Moore <rkmoore@iol.ie>
|
||
|
Subject: File 1--PNEWS,cr,cj-5/7> Truth, Political Action, and Cyberspace
|
||
|
|
||
|
Truth, Political Action, and Cyberspace
|
||
|
Richard K. Moore
|
||
|
rkmoore@iol.ie
|
||
|
7 May 1995
|
||
|
|
||
|
Several threads were woven together in the CyberWinter Schedule, as is
|
||
|
necessary for the overall picture to be presented. And given the concise
|
||
|
nature of internet postings, it was obviously impossible to endow each
|
||
|
point with comprehensive documentation or analysis in a single message.
|
||
|
But I want to assure you that the thesis is not an exaggerated one, and
|
||
|
that it was not an emotional response to recent alarming events, nor a
|
||
|
paranoid interpretation of isolated phenomenon. It is my intention to take
|
||
|
each point in turn in future postings, keying off of representative
|
||
|
skeptical response-postings, and substantiate the point as necessary.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Vigdor Shreibman has a favorite saying, "Speak truth to power". My
|
||
|
preference is to "Speak truth to those who can benefit from it". Truth is
|
||
|
not a matter of optimism or pessimism, nor a matter of feeling comfortable,
|
||
|
nor a matter of expressing one's psychological attitude, nor of stating how
|
||
|
one would like things to be -- truth is a matter of "what is".
|
||
|
|
||
|
There are those who prefer to minimize the dangers facing them, because it
|
||
|
gives them hope. There are others who prefer to exaggerate dangers,
|
||
|
because it reinforces their personal sense of hopelessness, arising from
|
||
|
their psychological neuroses. But if you have a serious desire to make a
|
||
|
difference politically, you cannot afford to cloud your vision with
|
||
|
preferences, nor to select the facts you look at in order to achieve
|
||
|
personal comfort. In wartime, a good general must be totally honest about
|
||
|
the enemy's capabilities, intentions, and style of engagement. In
|
||
|
political activism, you must similarly be totally honest, unless your
|
||
|
desire is simply to make yourself feel better by doing "something".
|
||
|
|
||
|
---
|
||
|
|
||
|
The prospects for salvaging democracy in today's world happen to be grim.
|
||
|
I wish it were otherwise. We happen to live in a world where the
|
||
|
production and distribution of goods and information are increasingly
|
||
|
organized on a global scale, and where the controlling parameters are
|
||
|
increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few score transnational
|
||
|
corporations, and their growing network of commissions and agencies,
|
||
|
operating outside the control of representative political frameworks.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The scale and integration of global activity has quite simply outgrown the
|
||
|
political structures that humankind has been able to construct to manage
|
||
|
it. The majority of nations are minor players in the global drama, having
|
||
|
a smaller annual balance sheet than the large corporations. Their
|
||
|
sovereignty is subject to the dictates of the World Bank, the International
|
||
|
Monetary Fund, and the autonomous policies of international financial
|
||
|
institutions and industrial corporations. The flow of news and information
|
||
|
is less and less controlled by domestic sources, and more and more by
|
||
|
global media conglomerates. This isn't a theory (conspiracy or otherwise),
|
||
|
this is simply how the global system works. This gobalization is not even
|
||
|
denied by the forces which bring it about -- they proclaim it as a good
|
||
|
thing, and paint it with euphemistic slogans like "modernization", "global
|
||
|
competitiveness", and "reform".
|
||
|
|
||
|
It is important to pay attention to the details of this globalist rhetoric.
|
||
|
It always emphasizes economic factors, and carefully avoids discussion of
|
||
|
the political aspects of the institutions being put in place. The new
|
||
|
spate of mechanisms designed to consolidate and rationalize the global
|
||
|
system -- GATT, NAFTA, and the like -- are sold entirely as mechanisms to
|
||
|
streamline world trade. It is left to independent spokespeople -- Chomsky
|
||
|
always being the first to come to mind, although he is by no means unique
|
||
|
in his analysis -- to point out that these autonomous commisssions are
|
||
|
being endowed with tremendous _political_ power. They are empowered to
|
||
|
supercede national sovereignty with regard to the environment, labor,
|
||
|
regulation of industry, and finacial policy. Under the rubric of
|
||
|
preventing "protectionism", nations are increasingly unable to exercise
|
||
|
responsibility over the quality of life or the welfare of their citizens.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The political nature of the globalist system is intentionally downplayed
|
||
|
because, if it wasn't, there are obvious questions which would arise, such
|
||
|
as "Who chooses the commissioners?", and "What democratic controls exist
|
||
|
over their deliberations and rulings?". These would be very embarrassing
|
||
|
questions for the globalist forces to deal with, because the answers to
|
||
|
these kinds of questions are also obvious: the commissions are populated by
|
||
|
members of the corporate elite, are chartered to facilitate corporate
|
||
|
operations, and are beholden to no effective democratic process. By
|
||
|
focusing public attention on the "free trade" aspects of these commissions,
|
||
|
and maintaining an effective blackout of the more general political
|
||
|
ramifications, the critically-needed democratic discussion is avoided.
|
||
|
|
||
|
---
|
||
|
|
||
|
Cyberspace is not all that central to this globalist drama, but is
|
||
|
intertwined with it in very interesting ways. Cyberspace is inherently
|
||
|
global in its reach, and its current independence from control by the
|
||
|
globalist forces is a striking anomaly. As a realm of economic
|
||
|
development, cyberspace offers the potential for significant corporate
|
||
|
profits, and we can observe the globalist forces at work as they strive to
|
||
|
transform it into yet-another marketplace. As a means of information
|
||
|
dissemination, cyberspace is typical of other mass media, and we can
|
||
|
observe the globalist forces as they attempt bring its content under the
|
||
|
control of the same monopolies that control (directly or indirectly) most
|
||
|
of the content of television news, and the international wire services.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Where cyberspace is most unique, is in its potential to facilitate the
|
||
|
independent distribution of information, and to enable grass-roots
|
||
|
political activity. It is in this regard that cyberspace _does_ assume a
|
||
|
central position in the globalist drama, at least potentially. It is not
|
||
|
the profits lost due to free information distribution that is most
|
||
|
threatening to the globalists, it is the fact that the information
|
||
|
distribution is "out of control" -- people can exchange independent news
|
||
|
and views with one another on a mass scale and across national boundaries;
|
||
|
they can develop agendas and promote democratic activity; they have the
|
||
|
potential to build political consensus that is outside the bounds of the
|
||
|
smoothly running global propaganda machine, and the corporate-dominated
|
||
|
political party regimes. We must honestly admit that this potential has
|
||
|
gone largely untapped, but that may be beginning to change, and the threat
|
||
|
is all-to-obvious to those currently holding the comfortable reins of
|
||
|
power. This is why cyberspace is currently being attacked intensively and
|
||
|
on a broad front, out of proportion to its thus-far effect.
|
||
|
|
||
|
I don't mean to minimize the inspiring work being done on the net by
|
||
|
thousands of individuals and organizations, but it has not yet succeeded in
|
||
|
effectively breaking out of its virtual domain, and making a significant
|
||
|
impact on real-world politics. The race is now on to see if cyberspace can
|
||
|
earn the fear in which it is held by those in power, before it is
|
||
|
effectively subdued due to its potential.
|
||
|
|
||
|
---
|
||
|
|
||
|
As political activists, we have a responsibility to make much more
|
||
|
effective use of this unprecedented educational and organizational tool
|
||
|
while it remains available to us. And given the global nature of our tool,
|
||
|
and the globalism of today's poltical forces, it is imperative that we
|
||
|
think globally AND act globally. We need to bring together people and
|
||
|
organizations with similar interests from around the world. Local trade
|
||
|
unions in the north of England, for example, have more in common with
|
||
|
similar groups in India or Chicago, than they do with the Tories or Mr.
|
||
|
Blair's version of the Labour Party. Cyberspace provides the opportunity
|
||
|
to build new constituencies and coalitions that cut across traditional
|
||
|
boundaries of location, race, class, and political systems.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The _content_ of our organizing must address the globalist forces that
|
||
|
increasingly control the parameters of all of our lives. We cannot afford
|
||
|
to focus most of our energy on minor skirmishes and superficial issues. We
|
||
|
cannot limit our attention to issues directly related to the network, and
|
||
|
most important -- we need to spend less time pursuing the intellectual fun
|
||
|
of arguing with one another over arcane philosophical fine points, and
|
||
|
learn to develop practical political agendas, and persue effective
|
||
|
political organizaing. We need to break out of our various single-issue
|
||
|
discussion groups, and learn to work and communicate on something
|
||
|
approaching a net-wide basis (which automatically becomes a geographically
|
||
|
global basis.)
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
-rkm
|
||
|
|
||
|
Estagon: ... Let's go
|
||
|
Vladimir: We can't
|
||
|
Estragon: Why not?
|
||
|
Vladimir: We're waiting for Godot
|
||
|
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989): Waiting for Godot
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
A man who leaves home to mend himself and others is a
|
||
|
philosopher; but he who goes from country to country,
|
||
|
guided by the blind impulse of curiosity, is a vagabond.
|
||
|
Oliver Goldsmith (1728-74): Citizen of the World, No 7
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
=========================================================================
|
||
|
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR)
|
||
|
Working Group: CAMPAIGN FOR CYBER RIGHTS
|
||
|
cyber-rights@cpsr.org
|
||
|
|
||
|
Available online: web pointers, FAQ, list archives, library:
|
||
|
|
||
|
World Wide Web:
|
||
|
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~hwh6k/public/cyber-rights.html
|
||
|
http://jasper.ora.com/andyo/cyber-rights/cyber-rights.html
|
||
|
FTP:
|
||
|
ftp://jasper.ora.com/pub/andyo/cyber-rights
|
||
|
|
||
|
You are encouraged to forward and cross-post messages and online materials,
|
||
|
for non-commercial use, pursuant to any contained copyright &
|
||
|
redistribution restrictions.
|
||
|
=========================================================================
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~-~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~
|
||
|
Posted by -- Richard K. Moore -- rkmoore@iol.ie -- Wexford, Ireland.
|
||
|
Moderator for: CYBER-RIGHTS & CYBERJOURNAL (@CPSR.ORG)
|
||
|
|
||
|
World Wide Web:
|
||
|
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~hwh6k/public/cyber-rights.html
|
||
|
http://jasper.ora.com/andyo/cyber-rights/cyber-rights.html
|
||
|
FTP:
|
||
|
ftp://jasper.ora.com/pub/andyo/cyber-rights
|
||
|
|
||
|
You are encouraged to forward and cross-post messages and online materials,
|
||
|
for non-commercial use, pursuant to any contained copyright &
|
||
|
redistribution restrictions.
|
||
|
|
||
|
------------------------------
|
||
|
|
||
|
Date: Sun, 7 May 1995 14:38:59 -0500 (CDT)
|
||
|
From: Wade Riddick <riddick@JEEVES.LA.UTEXAS.EDU>
|
||
|
Subject: File 2--A solution to the digital copyright problem
|
||
|
|
||
|
Open Letter:
|
||
|
|
||
|
Fixing the Digital Copyright Dilemma with Telerights:
|
||
|
Copying is easy; decryption is not
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
(c) 1995 By Wade Riddick
|
||
|
All rights reserved
|
||
|
Circulate freely unaltered
|
||
|
Released May 7, 1995.
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
After reading the National Information Infrastructure debate on
|
||
|
intellectual property reform in the digital age, one could conclude that
|
||
|
computers and copyrights have come to an impasse. The copyright code
|
||
|
assumes that copying is difficult and expensive, hence authors are
|
||
|
rewarded on a per copy basis. Digital technology makes such copying
|
||
|
nearly costless. Why reward authors for their part in a costless
|
||
|
transaction?
|
||
|
Some have proposed drastically curtailing electronic technology in
|
||
|
order to protect future publishers. They want to put all forms of
|
||
|
computer copying under the copyright code -- even reading a program from
|
||
|
disk into RAM. They want to ban the electronic resale or renting of
|
||
|
copyrighted material fearing that the piracy which has plagued software
|
||
|
will plague movies and books when they enter cyberspace.
|
||
|
I believe it is possible to use this conflict as fuel for a new,
|
||
|
stronger system of copyright protection. First we need to understand
|
||
|
the function of intellectual property laws and the capabilities of
|
||
|
digital technology.
|
||
|
In the past, copyright law has not been able to reward authors
|
||
|
based on the benefits others gain from using their creations. The law
|
||
|
has had to equate purchasing or viewing a copy of the work with using it
|
||
|
because the cost of verifying and enforcing any other kind of contract
|
||
|
has usually been too high. It was also assumed users were literate
|
||
|
enough to interpret the replicas they purchased.
|
||
|
Digital documents, unlike written ones, can be quite easily
|
||
|
manipulated, reproduced and transformed. Individuals can link numbers
|
||
|
together into combinations that can be hard to understand. This
|
||
|
fluidity contains the solution to the copyright dilemma.
|
||
|
In the computer world, context is everything. Every byte gets
|
||
|
interpreted at some point whether it's in a text file scanned by a
|
||
|
printer putting symbols on a page or it's in a program being read by the
|
||
|
microprocessor. Passive data doesn't exist; everything's an
|
||
|
instruction. But the context needed for proper interpretation is not
|
||
|
always portable on the user's whim. It is impossible, for instance, to
|
||
|
run Windows programs on a Macintosh without purchasing a special
|
||
|
operating context.
|
||
|
We can adapt copyrights to the digital world if we realize that it
|
||
|
takes a special form of literacy to use digital information. In other
|
||
|
words, duplicating an author's digital work may be easy, but decrypting
|
||
|
it is not. That requires extra, privately held information.
|
||
|
Using this contextual insight to create secure digital copyrights
|
||
|
requires adding two more layers of interpretation to computer operating
|
||
|
systems. Not only must data be encrypted, it must also have the power
|
||
|
to communicate with its publisher for the unique and private key needed
|
||
|
to decrypt itself. Only by using two layers can we prevent the theft of
|
||
|
both the original document and the private information (context) needed
|
||
|
to make the document useful.
|
||
|
|
||
|
I call this a system of 'telerights.'
|
||
|
A user would buy an encrypted copy of the document from the author
|
||
|
or publisher. Each individual version would have a different key, so
|
||
|
the user could make many duplicates but in essence only own the one
|
||
|
'copy' that was paid for. When the user wanted to use the document, it
|
||
|
would contact its publisher for the key. If no other versions with the
|
||
|
same key were in use, the publisher would send the key to the user's
|
||
|
machine and the document would decrypt itself into an area of temporary
|
||
|
memory like RAM. When the user was done, the document would delete the
|
||
|
decrypted version.
|
||
|
Users would regain the fair use property rights in cyberspace they
|
||
|
have come to expect in the printed domain. Users could make and pass
|
||
|
around as many copies as they like because the publisher could guarantee
|
||
|
a one to one correspondence between sales and use. A professor, for
|
||
|
example, could lend out books to his students or sell used software --
|
||
|
two acts considered illegal under the current system of digital
|
||
|
copyrights.
|
||
|
The old problem of piracy would be turned on its head. The user
|
||
|
instead of the publisher would have to worry about theft. When someone
|
||
|
stole his copy, they would steal his use of it as well. There would be
|
||
|
no assurance the person you buy used information from would delete their
|
||
|
old copies.
|
||
|
Because the bond of contractual trust between publisher and
|
||
|
purchaser would be perpetually renewed, this would be a simple problem
|
||
|
to guard against. The publisher would always know where and when a work
|
||
|
was in use, so users could ask publishers to ban certain sites from
|
||
|
using a particular version of a document (in the case of used data) or
|
||
|
restrict use to a particular site or user ID (if we're dealing with
|
||
|
virtual terminals). This is one way parents could control the flow of
|
||
|
information going to their children. In any event, this wouldn't
|
||
|
terribly onerous. A reseller could always purchase another version with
|
||
|
a different key.
|
||
|
Stronger property rights will vastly expand the market for
|
||
|
copyrighted material. Libraries would no longer have to purchase books
|
||
|
that went unread. They could average out their risk in the same way
|
||
|
some banks do with mortgage derivations by pooling their funds together
|
||
|
and purchasing expensive or esoteric information for their common use.
|
||
|
Corporations could purchase telerighted documents, then double encrypt
|
||
|
them and rent them out with fixed duration keys. By republishing a
|
||
|
document you could loan it to a friend without worrying about it being
|
||
|
returned.
|
||
|
By knowing when, where and what parts of a collaborative work were
|
||
|
in use, publishers would better know how to reward individual artists in
|
||
|
a project. I could use parts of a telerighted document in my own
|
||
|
publication and the original publisher would know better how to bill me
|
||
|
for that use.
|
||
|
Furthermore, one could break up the public airwaves into multiple
|
||
|
private channels. ABC could teleright its sitcoms and distribute them
|
||
|
freely over the internet. No one would ever watch quite the same thing
|
||
|
at quite the same time again, but network store and forward technology
|
||
|
would vastly decrease distribution costs. By telerighting each copy,
|
||
|
the networks and their advertisers would know exactly who watched their
|
||
|
programs and how often.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Telerights combine networking technology with encryption, software
|
||
|
meters and object oriented intelligent documents... items that have all
|
||
|
been hot topics by themselves or in various subsets. To my knowledge no
|
||
|
one has yet brought these concepts together under one roof, although a
|
||
|
few efforts have come close.
|
||
|
Since before the start of microprocessor clocks, Ted Nelson has
|
||
|
been pushing the concept of hypertext publishers. His ideas have
|
||
|
inspired World Wide Web development and a host of other network
|
||
|
computing innovations. By itself, though, his theoretical Xanadu server
|
||
|
lacks cryptological security and fails to take advantage of high
|
||
|
bandwidth networks, distributed computing and object-oriented data
|
||
|
distribution.
|
||
|
The Copyright Office itself is creating an archive that will bind
|
||
|
copyrighted documents together with information about their publishers.
|
||
|
The Copyright Clearance Center has set up a World Wide Web site where
|
||
|
users can negotiate rights with publishers and, in conjunction with
|
||
|
Folio Corp., it is designing a CD-ROM LAN system so that universities
|
||
|
and large businesses can be billed according to how they use
|
||
|
information.
|
||
|
These projects target large government institutions and private
|
||
|
corporations because they have a large technological base and both use
|
||
|
and publish vast amounts of intellectual property. They are natural
|
||
|
starting places for new systems of copyright protection.
|
||
|
These projects, though, won't keep up with the technology as it
|
||
|
spreads into the home. In the future information won't be this easy to
|
||
|
centralize. For one thing, CD-ROMs will be easy for individuals to copy
|
||
|
and although piracy is rather easy to detect in large organizations,
|
||
|
individual users won't be paralyzed by that same fear.
|
||
|
On the consumer side of today's market we have 'interactive TV' --
|
||
|
a decidedly different sort of venture since most homes cannot manage
|
||
|
digital information. This system gets around the piracy issue by
|
||
|
directly broadcasting information on demand to home televisions.
|
||
|
Because people lack the technology to copy the information entering the
|
||
|
home in any useful way, many scholars have proposed using on demand
|
||
|
broadcast as the model for the future distribution of intellectual
|
||
|
property.
|
||
|
I dislike the on demand system because it denies individuals the
|
||
|
ability to own their own copies of information. Even if you get around
|
||
|
the problem of future users being able to record information transmitted
|
||
|
into their home, under telerights it will always be cheaper to resend a
|
||
|
key instead of the whole document. 'Interactive TV' is a poor model for
|
||
|
the future because it concentrates too much on the later half of the
|
||
|
term -- the television, a very dumb device.
|
||
|
|
||
|
These projects make important technical and social contributions
|
||
|
to the protection of intellectual property. In all fairness to them,
|
||
|
even though the technology exists, the infrastructure needed to make a
|
||
|
system like telerights work is not yet in place. I think getting it in
|
||
|
place will be the most difficult part of the whole affair.
|
||
|
I am assuming, of course, that the problems telerights share with
|
||
|
other internet projects can be solved -- namely, that everyone will get
|
||
|
a personal, high bandwidth network connection and generic security
|
||
|
issues will be laid to rest. If it turns out to be technically
|
||
|
impossible to produce secure cryptographic codes or prevent the
|
||
|
counterfeiting of network addresses, my project and a host of others
|
||
|
will go down the drain.
|
||
|
I'm optimistic these technological issues will be settled, so that
|
||
|
leaves us with the question of how to standardize teleright technology
|
||
|
and make it widespread. This will take some coordination among computer
|
||
|
makers, operating system designers, phone companies, network providers,
|
||
|
software concerns and, of course, the government.
|
||
|
The government does not need to alter existing copyright laws;
|
||
|
telerights are merely new contractual forms. It does need to clarify
|
||
|
the regulatory environment and encourage companies to agree on and
|
||
|
accept a standard. Since the government is a large producer and
|
||
|
consumer of intellectual property, it can facilitate the acceptance of
|
||
|
a standard by using public monies to purchase first generation systems.
|
||
|
The contemporary regulatory breakdown of the old content/carrier
|
||
|
distinction makes all this problematic.
|
||
|
On the consumer end, there is the privacy issue. Any company that
|
||
|
both maintains other people's teleright accounts and publishes its own
|
||
|
documents will be tempted to use for financial gain private information
|
||
|
about other companies' customers.
|
||
|
It would perhaps be best to assign day to day teleright accounting
|
||
|
to a government agency or semi-public utility. After all, when you
|
||
|
transfer title on land, it's publicly registered at the local
|
||
|
courthouse. Telerights aren't much different. Government is the
|
||
|
ultimate enforcer of property rights and is also the best place to
|
||
|
ensure anonymity in the collection of economic statistics.
|
||
|
On the corporate end, without clearly defined lines in the market
|
||
|
companies will be tempted to use the standardization process to compete
|
||
|
against one another. It will take longer to establish a winner if rival
|
||
|
standards emerge. In the interim, old copyright laws will continue to
|
||
|
be inadequate in the digital world so a delay in the standardization
|
||
|
process might make attractive solutions that look less palatable today.
|
||
|
The issue of encryption itself is sticky because there are already
|
||
|
two established and ideologically opposed groups fighting about it. The
|
||
|
government must be coaxed into relaxing its objections to strong
|
||
|
encryption and Clipper opponents must learn to accept a key escrow
|
||
|
standard to which the government has warranted access.
|
||
|
Bobby Inman has proposed using the Federal Reserve as one of the
|
||
|
depositories for cryptological keys for a very good reason. In an
|
||
|
information economy, information is money. Just as the government
|
||
|
supervises banks to make sure that they do not launder money,
|
||
|
counterfeit currency, falsify bank sheets or expose themselves or their
|
||
|
customers to abnormal risks, so too must the government regulate
|
||
|
telerights. One doesn't need to look at the Great Depression to
|
||
|
remember the benefits of regulation. The '80s S&L debacle will suffice.
|
||
|
The government must also encourage software and computer companies
|
||
|
to accept some level of professionalization. With the proper tools and
|
||
|
knowledge it will be possible to trap keys or decrypted documents stored
|
||
|
in temporary memory. These tools and skills must be tightly regulated
|
||
|
and those sections of the operating system must be shut off from amateur
|
||
|
tampering. This may cause angst among some programmers but for most of
|
||
|
us this should not be a burden. It does, after all, take a license (and
|
||
|
the proper employer) to tamper with phone boxes and electric meters.
|
||
|
Part of the digital frontier must be closed and civilized if society is
|
||
|
to settle the land and make it productive.
|
||
|
Although it may be possible to make telerights work without
|
||
|
encryption, it would involve a more onerous regulation of programming.
|
||
|
One would have to vastly restrict low level media access to make
|
||
|
unencrypted telerights work because it would be easy to pull raw
|
||
|
information off the disk with a sector editor. With encryption, the
|
||
|
restrictions are narrower and easier to enforce because the data is
|
||
|
coded wherever it is stored in permanent form. Only certain sections of
|
||
|
the runtime environment need to be restricted.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Telerights will not eliminate all forms of electronic piracy, but
|
||
|
by lowering transaction costs and raising the risk and expense of
|
||
|
counterfeiting, the most widespread individual and institutional forms
|
||
|
of piracy will be severely curtailed.
|
||
|
It won't prevent the pirating of physical, non-digital materials
|
||
|
like books but it doesn't have to. Information goes digital because it
|
||
|
is more useful in that form. Hypertext indices cannot be printed out
|
||
|
and scanned back in nor can people make videotapes of movies playing on
|
||
|
their screen and expect to retain the original fidelity. A digital
|
||
|
document is a non-linear object that always plays back in a linear
|
||
|
frame.
|
||
|
Given the low costs of electronically distributing materials and
|
||
|
the strength of the teleright protection system, many would-be pirates
|
||
|
may opt instead to sub-license and re-publish materials both in physical
|
||
|
and electronic form.
|
||
|
Users do have to give up some 'privacy' to make telerights work,
|
||
|
but their behavior is not turned into a public document. Like a number
|
||
|
of other encrypted communication schemes, telerights breaks up public
|
||
|
broadcast channels into a multitude of two-way private channels that
|
||
|
span the boundaries of public and private, sprawling across an
|
||
|
indeterminate number of nodes.
|
||
|
Users will chose give up some privacy for the added convenience
|
||
|
and the lower costs of information. They will also gain a measure back
|
||
|
since they will be able to encrypt information about themselves and
|
||
|
better control who has access to it.
|
||
|
|
||
|
We are, to use the old Chinese pejorative, living in interesting
|
||
|
times. Why the Chinese have historically found this undesirable I do
|
||
|
not know. Their word for 'crisis' means both 'danger' and 'opportunity'
|
||
|
and our western capitalism has always been fueled by such critical
|
||
|
change.
|
||
|
When it comes to social conflicts over the development of the
|
||
|
internet, we shouldn't forget the creative part of Schumpeter's
|
||
|
"creative destruction." We just need to follow Carver Mead's advice to
|
||
|
"listen to the technology"... in this case, at least to our own cliches.
|
||
|
If the future is one of distributed intelligence where everyone
|
||
|
will be a publisher, then we should distribute the responsibility for
|
||
|
enforcing copyrights by making our documents intelligent.
|
||
|
We must stop thinking of copyright stamps as passive marks. Their
|
||
|
presence has always made a very active social statement and should
|
||
|
continue to do so in the future.
|
||
|
|
||
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
|
||
|
Wade Riddick is a graduate student and National Science Foundation
|
||
|
Fellow in the Government Department at the University of Texas at
|
||
|
Austin. His email address is riddick@jeeves.la.utexas.edu.
|
||
|
|
||
|
------------------------------
|
||
|
|
||
|
Date: 04 May 95 13:16:41 EDT
|
||
|
From: "Gray Areas Inc." <76042.3624@COMPUSERVE.COM>
|
||
|
Subject: File 3--New GRAY AREAS includes Cybernews & Notes
|
||
|
|
||
|
((MODERATORS' NOTE: Gray Areas continues to put out consistently
|
||
|
interesting counter-cultural articles, and specializes in
|
||
|
computer issues and rock music. It's worth a look, and the low
|
||
|
subscription price is a great bargain for a print medium)).
|
||
|
|
||
|
Named "The #1 Zine of 1993" by PULSE! and "One Of The Top Ten Magazines
|
||
|
of 1992" by LIBRARY JOURNAL, GRAY AREAS is a 164 page glossy paper
|
||
|
magazine focusing on subject matter which is illegal, immoral and/or
|
||
|
controversial. It examines the gray areas of life by exploring all
|
||
|
points of view about the subjects it covers such as computer crimes,
|
||
|
drugs, sex and intellectual property.
|
||
|
|
||
|
GRAY AREAS has been favorably reviewed/mentioned in a wide variety of
|
||
|
books and publications such as: ALTERNATIVE PRESS REVIEW, ANARCHY, THE
|
||
|
BLACK FLAME, bOING bOING, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, COMPUTER UNDERGROUND
|
||
|
DIGEST, THE COVERT CULTURE SOURCEBOOK, DIRTY LINEN, EIDOS, FACTSHEET
|
||
|
FIVE, FLIPSIDE, FRIGHTEN THE HORSES, GEAR, HOAX!, INFORMATION
|
||
|
WARFARE, IRON FEATHER JOURNAL, NUTS & VOLTS, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER,
|
||
|
PHRACK, RECORD COLLECTOR, REQUEST, SCREW, UNBROKEN CHAIN, WHOLE EARTH
|
||
|
REVIEW.
|
||
|
|
||
|
The latest issue is #7 (Spring 1995) which contains:
|
||
|
- articles on the computer underground including an exclusive interview
|
||
|
with the Internet Liberation Front, an article on scanning cellular
|
||
|
phone calls and reviews of HOPE, DEFCON II and HoHoCon '94
|
||
|
- articles on drugs including Kava, Prozac, using hemp for paper, LSD
|
||
|
and drug rehabilitation
|
||
|
- articles on sex including prostitution, adult bookstores, stripping,
|
||
|
AIDS, rape victims, abortion and Adult film actor Richard Pacheco on
|
||
|
how his parents discovered that he had starred in porn films
|
||
|
- articles on music including an interview with Mike Gordon of Phish,
|
||
|
Paul McCartney, Woodstock '94, Lollapalooza and a complete list of
|
||
|
known Jethro Tull video tapes
|
||
|
- articles on other gray topics including gun control, adoption, robbery,
|
||
|
lying, polygraph tests, Santeria and the art of serial killer John
|
||
|
Wayne Gacy
|
||
|
- articles on legal issues such as parody, Tort explosion, the Line Item
|
||
|
Veto
|
||
|
- an extensive 60 page review section of movies, CDs, concerts, books,
|
||
|
zines, computer software, comics, cool catalogs, video games and live
|
||
|
audio tapes
|
||
|
|
||
|
A sample copy is $8.00 (U.S.) or $12.00 (foreign). A four-issue
|
||
|
subscription is $23.00 U.S. bulk mail or $32.00 1st class mail ($40.00
|
||
|
foreign, shipped air). Checks should be made payable to Gray Areas, Inc.
|
||
|
and sent to: P.O. Box 808, Broomall, PA 19008. GRAY AREAS may also be
|
||
|
found at Tower Books/Records, Barnes & Noble, Borders and other places
|
||
|
that carry zines. GRAY AREAS sells out immediately almost everywhere it
|
||
|
is placed so you may have no choice but to order it by mail.
|
||
|
|
||
|
There are six back issues available too at $8.00 U.S. or $12.00 foreign.
|
||
|
Highlights of these issues are:
|
||
|
Issue #1: Interview: John Perry Barlow on computer crimes
|
||
|
Interview: Adult Film star Kay Parker
|
||
|
Grateful Dead live video list
|
||
|
Issue #2: Interview: Adult Film Director Candida Royalle
|
||
|
Interview: Attorney/Musician Barry Melton
|
||
|
Grateful Dead Bootleg CDs list
|
||
|
Urine Testing
|
||
|
Issue #3: Interview: Computer Virus Writer Urnst Kouch
|
||
|
Interview: Shocking Musician GG Allin
|
||
|
Interview: David Gans, Host of The Grateful Dead Hour
|
||
|
Interview: John Trubee on Prank Phone Calls
|
||
|
Adult Film Star Richard Pacheco Speaks
|
||
|
Issue #4: Interview: RIAA Piracy Director Steven D'Onofrio
|
||
|
Interview: Phone Sex Fantasy Girl
|
||
|
Interview: Ivan Stang, Church of the SubGenius Leader
|
||
|
Issue #5: Interview with a Phone Phreak
|
||
|
Breaking Into The WELL (includes interview with two of the
|
||
|
many crackers involved)
|
||
|
Interview: S/M Dominatrix
|
||
|
All About Smart Drugs
|
||
|
Issue #6: Interview: Adult FIlm Actress Taylor Wayne
|
||
|
Interview: Chris "Erik Bloodaxe" Goggans
|
||
|
Jimi Hendrix Bootleg CDs
|
||
|
|
||
|
Upcoming in issue #8 (out this summer) is an interview with Invalid
|
||
|
Media, sysop of Unphamiliar Territory, an interview with an "Old
|
||
|
School" Hacker, the results of a survey of the attitudes and opinions
|
||
|
of today's hackers and part two of a list of Grateful Dead bootleg CDs.
|
||
|
|
||
|
------------------------------
|
||
|
|
||
|
Date: Wed, 3 May 1995 19:49:12 -0400
|
||
|
From: eye@INTERLOG.COM(eye WEEKLY)
|
||
|
Subject: File 4--Vote FRO^H^H....(Ah, that ol' backspace) - (eye Reprint)
|
||
|
|
||
|
VOTE FRO^H^H^H FOR ME!
|
||
|
And Il'^H^H^H^H^ Set You Ftr^H^Hree
|
||
|
By K.K. Campbell
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
On May 1, Toronto's Online Direct announced it would hold Ontario's
|
||
|
first "cyberspace election debate." Online prez Greg Vezina wants to
|
||
|
conduct a variety of election forums, including a "Big Three"
|
||
|
leadership debate.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Under Vezina's plan, the leaders can participate from anywhere. "The
|
||
|
beauty of this is that Mike Harris can be on his campaign bus, driving
|
||
|
on highway 17, and still use a cellphone and go online," Vezina told
|
||
|
eyeNET.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Of course, one expects it will really be a 90-words-a-minute typist
|
||
|
entering the words of a campaign spin doctor, while the leader soaks in
|
||
|
a hottub.
|
||
|
|
||
|
eyeNET Newsmedia Labs beat the rest to the punch and conducted its own
|
||
|
Internet leadership debate, the very night the elections were
|
||
|
announced.
|
||
|
|
||
|
EYE.NET'S CAMPAIGN '95 ELECTRONIC DEBATE
|
||
|
April 28, 1995, 7pm
|
||
|
|
||
|
MODERATOR <eye@interlog.com>: Welcome, Ontario netters!
|
||
|
|
||
|
This is a real time debate. You will see what the candidates type, as
|
||
|
they type it. To prevent spin doctor charades, each candidate is locked
|
||
|
in a lead-encased, sound-proof room with nothing but a terminal, bottle
|
||
|
of Evian, and toilet.
|
||
|
|
||
|
We contacted 1,000 high-volume newsgroups, requesting each elect a
|
||
|
delegate. Each delegate is allowed one question.
|
||
|
|
||
|
In the spirit of The New Internet, each politician is allowed to censor
|
||
|
one newsgroup: Mr Rae chose to deny the existence of
|
||
|
alt.politics.socialist.trotsky; Ms McLeod obliterated alt.homosexual;
|
||
|
Mr Harris doesn't want to hear anything from rec.sport.golf .
|
||
|
Candidates, greetings.
|
||
|
|
||
|
[NDP PREMIER] RAE <premier@gov.on.ca>: I thank eyeNET for providing me
|
||
|
this opportunity to talk with the people of ONtario in this exciting
|
||
|
democratic forum.
|
||
|
|
||
|
[Liberal leader] MCLEOD <lynn@prodigy.com>: It's nice to bve here. What a
|
||
|
cute keybord!One key has a little apple on it! So much quiet than
|
||
|
typoerwriter. Ifell like I am on the bridge of the Star Trek spaceboat!
|
||
|
|
||
|
[Tory leader] HARRIS <golfpro@aol.com>: He;;o
|
||
|
|
||
|
MOD: First question: from the delegate from ont.general, for Mr Harris.
|
||
|
Candidates, remember, you get maximum 10 minutes to type your answer.
|
||
|
|
||
|
ARNIE <arnie@queensu.ca>: Mr Harris -- aren't you embarrassed to show
|
||
|
your face in cyberspace after making such a complete ass of yourself
|
||
|
over that phony Bob Rae email last December?
|
||
|
|
||
|
HARRIS: Forgerys^Hs^Hies are vrery comon^H^H^H comMON^H^H^H
|
||
|
|
||
|
MOD: Time. That was 10 minutes. By the way, Mr Harris, the backspace
|
||
|
key only produces ^H marks.
|
||
|
|
||
|
HARRIS: cmoln^H^H^H^H^H
|
||
|
|
||
|
MOD: Question for Ms McLeod, from the rec.food.cooking.betty-crocker
|
||
|
delegate.
|
||
|
|
||
|
MRS COLIN FERGUSON <marge@hick.ca>: Hi Lynn! Maybe you remember me,
|
||
|
Lynn, we met at the Thunder Bay Church Bakeoff Against Fags and Dykes
|
||
|
last fall.
|
||
|
|
||
|
MCLEOD: Marge Ferguson! Hello!
|
||
|
|
||
|
MRS COLIN FERGUSON: You brought a delciious blueberry pie. I'm hoping
|
||
|
to get your recipe, since you will be premier this fall and unable to
|
||
|
attend! Ha ha ha!
|
||
|
|
||
|
HARRIS: Com mn^H
|
||
|
|
||
|
MCLEOD: It's an old family recipe, a secret for genrtations. I can't
|
||
|
break with tradition. Besides, to give away would suggest I too
|
||
|
confident. Ha ha ha! This is fun! I can see why young people love
|
||
|
Enternet!
|
||
|
|
||
|
RAE: mail teale-tales@io.com unsubscribe bob@inforamp.com ^D
|
||
|
|
||
|
MOD: Mr Premier??
|
||
|
|
||
|
RAE: Is it my question?
|
||
|
|
||
|
MOD: What are you doing?
|
||
|
|
||
|
RAE: What...? Could you see that?
|
||
|
|
||
|
MOD: Yes.
|
||
|
|
||
|
HARRIS: allwasy^H^Hys t ell
|
||
|
|
||
|
RAE: Oh... I just thought I'd catch up on email while others typed. I
|
||
|
didn;t know you could see me.
|
||
|
|
||
|
MOD: Email is disabled for the duration of the debate. Anything
|
||
|
further, Ms McLeod?
|
||
|
|
||
|
MCLEOD: But seriously, Marge,we LIbera;s are after a new bottoms up
|
||
|
approach to government! No... I mean a from below... from below
|
||
|
goverment. That sounds disgusting. Al Golombek says it better. I
|
||
|
think it means we want people below us to do stuff.
|
||
|
|
||
|
RAE: trn alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.female.JAP
|
||
|
|
||
|
MOD: Mr Premier?
|
||
|
|
||
|
RAE: My question?
|
||
|
|
||
|
MOD: The newsgroups are also temporarily disabled.
|
||
|
|
||
|
RAE: Oh. Sorry.
|
||
|
|
||
|
MOD: Ms McLeod, you were say-
|
||
|
|
||
|
HARRIS: wha t5 is fakl^H^Hake
|
||
|
|
||
|
RAE: I guess I shouldn't even bother trying IRC, right?
|
||
|
|
||
|
MOD: Correct.
|
||
|
|
||
|
RAE: Jeez... How about pong? There's a little copy of pong in the
|
||
|
corner of the screen. Can I at least play pong?
|
||
|
|
||
|
MCLEOD: What's pong?
|
||
|
|
||
|
MOD: Time. Question for the Premier, from the delegate from alt.flame .
|
||
|
|
||
|
ANONYMOUS <pkormos@anon.penet.fi>: Rae! I'm fucking your mom! She says
|
||
|
HI! You shithead lamer!!!!1 LICK MY BAG, LOOSER!!!!!!!!!!!111111111
|
||
|
Mcloed, lay off the twinkies, y-- NO CARRIER
|
||
|
|
||
|
MOD: Mr Premier?
|
||
|
|
||
|
RAE: I have no comment.
|
||
|
|
||
|
MOD: Ms McLeod? Comment?
|
||
|
|
||
|
MCLEOD: My ears! Is thsi the true ENternet?!? If it is, then I agree
|
||
|
with Herb and Allan we must CENSOR ENTERNET NOW!!
|
||
|
|
||
|
RAE: mail mboyd@gov.on.ca OK, you were right. Have the OPP tamper with
|
||
|
his breaks. Bob ^D
|
||
|
|
||
|
MOD: Mr Premier, email is disabled for the debate.
|
||
|
|
||
|
RAE: Right, right. Sorry.
|
||
|
|
||
|
MOD: Mr Harris?
|
||
|
|
||
|
HARRIS: didn t kno w it was forger5y!^H^H ry!
|
||
|
|
||
|
MOD: We are onto a new question, now, Mr Harris.
|
||
|
|
||
|
HARRIS: forgerisr8 shi t oops ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H
|
||
|
|
||
|
MOD: Mr Harris. Please look up at your monitor. Look up at your
|
||
|
monitor, Mr Harris.
|
||
|
|
||
|
HARRIS: forgre^H^H^H
|
||
|
|
||
|
MOD: Let's move on.
|
||
|
|
||
|
[mass deletia -- 997 more delegate questions follow]
|
||
|
-30-
|
||
|
K.K.Campbell
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
------------------------------
|
||
|
|
||
|
Date: Sun, 19 Apr 1995 22:51:01 CDT
|
||
|
From: CuD Moderators <cudigest@sun.soci.niu.edu>
|
||
|
Subject: File 5--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 19 Apr, 1995)
|
||
|
|
||
|
Cu-Digest is a weekly electronic journal/newsletter. Subscriptions are
|
||
|
available at no cost electronically.
|
||
|
|
||
|
CuD is available as a Usenet newsgroup: comp.society.cu-digest
|
||
|
|
||
|
Or, to subscribe, send a one-line message: SUB CUDIGEST your name
|
||
|
Send it to LISTSERV@VMD.CSO.UIUC.EDU
|
||
|
The editors may be contacted by voice (815-753-0303), fax (815-753-6302)
|
||
|
or U.S. mail at: Jim Thomas, Department of Sociology, NIU, DeKalb, IL
|
||
|
60115, USA.
|
||
|
|
||
|
To UNSUB, send a one-line message: UNSUB CUDIGEST <your name>
|
||
|
Send it to LISTSERV@VMD.CSO.UIUC.EDU
|
||
|
(NOTE: The address you unsub must correspond to your From: line)
|
||
|
|
||
|
Issues of CuD can also be found in the Usenet comp.society.cu-digest
|
||
|
news group; on CompuServe in DL0 and DL4 of the IBMBBS SIG, DL1 of
|
||
|
LAWSIG, and DL1 of TELECOM; on GEnie in the PF*NPC RT
|
||
|
libraries and in the VIRUS/SECURITY library; from America Online in
|
||
|
the PC Telecom forum under "computing newsletters;"
|
||
|
On Delphi in the General Discussion database of the Internet SIG;
|
||
|
on RIPCO BBS (312) 528-5020 (and via Ripco on internet);
|
||
|
and on Rune Stone BBS (IIRGWHQ) (203) 832-8441.
|
||
|
CuD is also available via Fidonet File Request from
|
||
|
1:11/70; unlisted nodes and points welcome.
|
||
|
|
||
|
EUROPE: In BELGIUM: Virtual Access BBS: +32-69-844-019 (ringdown)
|
||
|
Brussels: STRATOMIC BBS +32-2-5383119 2:291/759@fidonet.org
|
||
|
In ITALY: Bits against the Empire BBS: +39-464-435189
|
||
|
In LUXEMBOURG: ComNet BBS: +352-466893
|
||
|
|
||
|
UNITED STATES: etext.archive.umich.edu (192.131.22.8) in /pub/CuD/
|
||
|
ftp.eff.org (192.88.144.4) in /pub/Publications/CuD/
|
||
|
aql.gatech.edu (128.61.10.53) in /pub/eff/cud/
|
||
|
world.std.com in /src/wuarchive/doc/EFF/Publications/CuD/
|
||
|
uceng.uc.edu in /pub/wuarchive/doc/EFF/Publications/CuD/
|
||
|
wuarchive.wustl.edu in /doc/EFF/Publications/CuD/
|
||
|
EUROPE: nic.funet.fi in pub/doc/cud/ (Finland)
|
||
|
ftp.warwick.ac.uk in pub/cud/ (United Kingdom)
|
||
|
|
||
|
JAPAN: ftp.glocom.ac.jp /mirror/ftp.eff.org/Publications/CuD
|
||
|
ftp://www.rcac.tdi.co.jp/pub/mirror/CuD
|
||
|
|
||
|
The most recent issues of CuD can be obtained from the
|
||
|
Cu Digest WWW site at:
|
||
|
URL: http://www.soci.niu.edu:80/~cudigest/
|
||
|
|
||
|
COMPUTER UNDERGROUND DIGEST is an open forum dedicated to sharing
|
||
|
information among computerists and to the presentation and debate of
|
||
|
diverse views. CuD material may be reprinted for non-profit as long
|
||
|
as the source is cited. Authors hold a presumptive copyright, and
|
||
|
they should be contacted for reprint permission. It is assumed that
|
||
|
non-personal mail to the moderators may be reprinted unless otherwise
|
||
|
specified. Readers are encouraged to submit reasoned articles
|
||
|
relating to computer culture and communication. Articles are
|
||
|
preferred to short responses. Please avoid quoting previous posts
|
||
|
unless absolutely necessary.
|
||
|
|
||
|
DISCLAIMER: The views represented herein do not necessarily represent
|
||
|
the views of the moderators. Digest contributors assume all
|
||
|
responsibility for ensuring that articles submitted do not
|
||
|
violate copyright protections.
|
||
|
|
||
|
------------------------------
|
||
|
|
||
|
End of Computer Underground Digest #7.36
|
||
|
************************************
|
||
|
|