In Italian UCITA means someone who has been executed....we should add it to
the list of politically incorrect acronyms
Joseph Dal Molin
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416.818.9156 Cellular
www.openhealth.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Wayne Wilson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2000 11:07 AM
Subject: more Open Source arguments
> I am not trying to "preach to the choir" but just adding another item to
> add to our argumentive arsensal. This is for the united states crowd
> and relates to a new legal initiative in the US which is going state by
> state called UCITA. This comes from Bruce Schneier's Cryptogram
> available at www.counterpane.com. Bruce is one of the foremost
> cryptographers of our time.
>
> The open source argument is that one could never get away with what
> commerical companies are now allowed to do legally in the US, put
> backdoors in software which the customer has no control over!
>
> "Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore III signed the UCITA, and it is now law
> in
> Virginia. The Maryland legislature overwhelmingly passed the bill, and
> it
> is on its way to become law in that state.
>
> I put this horrible piece of legislation in the Doghouse last month, but
> it's worth revisiting one portion of the act that particularly affects
> computer security.
>
> As part of the UCITA, software manufacturers have the right to remotely
> disable software if the users do not abide by the license agreement.
> (If
> they don't pay for the software, for example.) As a computer-security
> professional, I think this is insane.
>
> What it means is that manufacturers can put a back door into their
> products. By sending some kind of code over the Internet, they can
> remotely turn off their products (or, presumably, certain features of
> their
> products). The naive conceit here is that only the manufacturer will
> ever
> know this disable code, and that hackers will never figure the codes out
> and post them on the Internet."
>
