Challenge to David Wagner on TCPA
Declan McCullagh writes at http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1107-946890.html: "The world is moving toward closed digital rights management systems where you may need approval to run programs," says David Wagner, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of California at Berkeley. "Both Palladium and TCPA incorporate features that would restrict what applications you could run." But both Palladium and TCPA deny that they are designed to restrict what applications you run. The TPM FAQ at http://www.trustedcomputing.org/docs/TPM_QA_071802.pdf reads, in answer #1: : The TPM can store measurements of components of the user's system, but : the TPM is a passive device and doesn't decide what software can or : can't run on a user's system. An apparently legitimate but leaked Palladium White Paper at http://www.neowin.net/staff/users/Voodoo/Palladium_White_Paper_final.pdf says, on the page shown as number 2: : A Palladium-enhanced computer must continue to run any existing : applications and device drivers. and goes on, : In addition, Palladium does not change what can be programmed or run : on the computing platform; it simply changes what can be believed about : programs, and the durability of those beliefs. Of course, white papers and FAQs are not technical documents and may not be completely accurate. To really answer the question, we need to look at the spec. Unfortunately there is no Palladium spec publicly available yet, but we do have one for TCPA, at http://www.trustedcomputing.org/docs/main%20v1_1b.pdf. Can you find anything in this spec that would do what David Wagner says above, restrict what applications you could run? Despite studying this spec for many hours, no such feature has been found. So here is the challenge to David Wagner, a well known and justifiably respected computer security expert: find language in the TCPA spec to back up your claim above, that TCPA will restrict what applications you can run. Either that, or withdraw the claim, and try to get Declan McCullagh to issue a correction. (Good luck with that!) And if you want, you can get Ross Anderson to help you. His reports are full of claims about Palladium and TCPA which seem equally unsupported by the facts. When pressed, he claims secret knowledge. Hopefully David Wagner will have too much self-respect to fall back on such a convenient excuse.
Re: What happened to cypherpunks?
On Fri, Jul 26, 2002 at 04:56:31PM +0100, Ken Brown wrote: > This is just a test message to see if it gets back to me. > > No traffic on lne or ssz though here for 24 hours. > Which after a few 100 in previous 2 days seems odd. Ssz seems to have gotten itself put in most of the open relay blacklists recently. Your ISP may be blocking mail from Ssz to you. Received cpunks traffic here at lne has been pretty light over the last four days or so. Perhaps everyone is taking a break? -- Eric (who doesn't use other people's blacklists)
Learning to love Big Brother: George W. Bush channels George Orwell
[Might be funnier if it weren't so true...] Learning to love Big Brother George W. Bush channels George Orwell Daniel Kurtzman Sunday, July 28, 2002 )2002 San Francisco Chronicle. URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/a/2002/07/28/IN244190.DTL Here's a question for constitutional scholars: Can a sitting president be charged with plagiarism? As President Bush wages his war against terrorism and moves to create a huge homeland security apparatus, he appears to be borrowing heavily, if not ripping off ideas outright, from George Orwell. The work in question is "1984, " the prophetic novel about a government that controls the masses by spreading propaganda, cracking down on subversive thought and altering history to suit its needs. It was intended to be read as a warning about the evils of totalitarianism -- not a how-to manual.
Re: What happened to cypherpunks?
On Mon, 29 Jul 2002, Eric Murray wrote: > Ssz seems to have gotten itself put in most of the open > relay blacklists recently. It was on them before, we changed IP's and they're back. Sorry assed socialist rat bastards. Hypocrites too since the spammers use them as a easy source of Open Relay info - otherwise they'd have to hunt for it themselves. The cost of doing spam would be much higher. > Your ISP may be blocking mail from Ssz to you. Sue their ass your right to free association is being violated! > Received cpunks traffic here at lne > has been pretty light over the last four days > or so. Perhaps everyone is taking a break? The list traffic has been light. -- When I die, I would like to be born again as me. Hugh Hefner [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.ssz.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.open-forge.org
Hollywood Hackers
Congressman Wants to Let Entertainment Industry Get Into Your Computer Rep. Howard L. Berman, D-Calif., formally proposed legislation that would give the industry unprecedented new authority to secretly hack into consumers' computers or knock them off-line entirely if they are caught downloading copyrighted material. I've been reading things like this for a while but I wonder how practical such an attack would be. They won't be able to hack into computers with reasonable firewalls and while they might try DOS attacks, upstream connectivity suppliers might object. Under current P2P software they may be able to do a little hacking but the opposition will rewrite the software to block. DOS attacks and phony file uploads can be defeated with digital signatures and reputation systems (including third party certification). Another problem -- Napster had 55 million customers. That's a lot of people to attack. I don't think Hollywood has the troops. DCF
Re: Hollywood Hackers
On Mon, 29 Jul 2002 14:25:37 -0400 (EDT), you wrote: > > Congressman Wants to Let Entertainment Industry Get Into Your Computer > > Rep. Howard L. Berman, D-Calif., formally proposed > legislation that would give the industry unprecedented new > authority to secretly hack into consumers' computers or knock > them off-line entirely if they are caught downloading > copyrighted material. > > I've been reading things like this for a while but I wonder how practical > such an attack would be. They won't be able to hack into computers with > reasonable firewalls and while they might try DOS attacks, upstream > connectivity suppliers might object. Under current P2P software they may > be able to do a little hacking but the opposition will rewrite the > software to block. DOS attacks and phony file uploads can be defeated > with digital signatures and reputation systems (including third party > certification). Another problem -- Napster had 55 million customers. > That's a lot of people to attack. I don't think Hollywood has the troops. I like this scenario: Adam places his copyrighted content on his web site. His friend, Eve, violates his copyright and places Adam's copyrighted content on her site. Hollywood downloads the copyright-infringing content from Eve's site. Eve confesses that Hollywood did so, in a good faith effort to repent from her copyright infringement. Now Adam hacks Hollywood, as authorized by the proposed law. Lawsuits all around.
RE: crime control before it happens: thought control
Quoth Major Variola: >She even conceives of developing algorithms so advanced that society >might intervene, to get people liable to be recruited into cells back >on track before they can be seduced by elements like Al Qaeda. "There is a >possibility that with sufficient information about known terrorists we >could evolve to the point where we could spot terrorists in the making," she >argues. .. Like, while in training by the CIA . . . .. Blanc
crime control before it happens: thought control
She even conceives of developing algorithms so advanced that society might intervene, to get people liable to be recruited into cells back on track before they can be seduced by elements like Al Qaeda. "There is a possibility that with sufficient information about known terrorists we could evolve to the point where we could spot terrorists in the making," she argues. "We believe that individuals can be at risk of becoming drug addicts, or joining gangs, or having affairs, or any number of things at certain times and under certain conditions in their lives. . . . Thorough and continued algorithmic investigation of terrorist behavior is very likely to shed light on their origins, and possibly lead to proactive efforts." http://villagevoice.com/issues/0230/baard.php
re: How to Defeat DVD Zone Controls
Most players cannot be hacked. And many hacks do not operate properly. How about just rent or borrow DVDs, reprocess to remove the region controls and reburn to a DVD-R? DVD-Rs are only about $1.25 or less each. Test burn on a DVD-RW to help prevent expensive coasters. See http://mpucoder.dynodns.net/derrow/copy.html Communicate in total privacy. Get your free encrypted email at https://www.hushmail.com/?l=2 Looking for a good deal on a domain name? http://www.hush.com/partners/offers.cgi?id=domainpeople
