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Subject: censorware reveng under legal attack from slashdot A few weeks ago we ran Keep It Legal to Embarrass Big Companies, detailing Peacefire's decryption of X-Stop's blacklist. Then just a few days ago, we noted that CyberPatrol's encrypted list had also been cracked. Well, Mattel, the maker of CyberPatrol and a Big Company, decided it didn't like to be embarrassed -- so it's filing suit against the coders in Canada and Sweden. In addition to demanding the removal of the decryption utility, Mattel is also seeking the logfiles of the Swedish ISP that hosts the decryption utility, to identify everyone who has downloaded it to date.
Re: Iridium [was: None]
On Thu, Mar 16, 2000 at 03:45:42PM -0500, Tim May wrote: > At 2:34 PM -0500 3/16/00, Dave Emery wrote: > >On Thu, Mar 16, 2000 at 11:00:54AM -0500, Trei, Peter wrote: > >> > >> It may be bankrupt as a commercial entity, but there are other well-heeled > >> groups who may take it over. > >> > > > >> I suspect those satellites may well be active for a long time to come, even > >> if not available for the non-elite. > >> > > > > There has been talk, perhaps not grounded in reality, of > >actually using the deorbit capability built into the satellites to > >remove the constellation by forcing the birds to reenter and burn up. It > >has been claimed that this might be necessary in order to get maximum > >tax writeoff for the loss. It is certainly in general true that > >companies in the USA seem to need to physically destroy obselete or > >unneeded equipment in order to satisfy the US tax code and get maximum > >writeof, apparently if there is any question of residual value things > >get sticky. > > Look, sorry to sound grumpy, but you are just speculating about what > has been widely, widely reported in the news. Read Yahoo or Lycos or > any other such source. It's frustraing watching people just > speculating and reporting what they they have heard as "talk." If you are complaining about what I wrote, let me say I chose my words carefully. I had indeed seen the press reports on the net about the intent to deorbit the system, but had not seen any official statement to that effect by Motorola or the Bankruptcy court. Perhaps I was being overly cautious, but in the absence of a solid primary source (that I had seen) it seemed prudent to report the whole thing as as "talk" as the notion of deorbiting a 4 billion dollar satellite constellation as a tax manuever strikes me as a pretty drastic action and something I would want to have seen primary source material on before I stated it as fact. If there have been such statements by the principals in the matter, I missed them and am sorry to have engaged in "just speculating", though there is certainly plenty of that on the cypherpunks list. I stand behind my original point (which is why why I opened my mouth in the first place) which is that the Motorala patents regarding law enforcement access to communications are primarily relevent to IRIDIUM alone and don't happen to apply to the other LEO and GEO sat phone systems which use bent pipe repeaters and ground processing of the signals. > > The plan to deorbit the 66 satellites will go into effect soon. > Tomorrow night at 11:59 the phone service will be turned off, unless > a buyer is found (or some other last minute funding arrives). > > Deorbiting is essentially necessary to get rid of the the junk in > orbit. Keeping the satellites on station requires money (for ground > controllers, etc.), and replacements would have to be launched as > needed to keep the system viable. It is simply _not_ the case that > they can just be left in orbit with no costs and used as needed. > This is a (perhaps slightly clearer) restatement of the point I was making in my post. Peter Trie, not I, was the one who was speculating about continued use of "those satellites". > --Tim May > > > > -- > -:-:-:-:-:-:-: > Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, > ComSec 3DES: 831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero > W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, > "Cyphernomicon" | black markets, collapse of governments. > -- Dave Emery N1PRE, [EMAIL PROTECTED] DIE Consulting, Weston, Mass. PGP fingerprint = 2047/4D7B08D1 DE 6E E1 CC 1F 1D 96 E2 5D 27 BD B0 24 88 C3 18
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Subject: big bro under the hood Black Boxes Come Down to Earth Once Only for Plane Crashes, Devices Now on Cars, Trains, Buses March 16, 2000 By Ann Ferrar DETROIT (APBnews.com) -- They are the elusive objects investigators seek after an airplane crashes. Black boxes tell the hidden story: what was going on, what the pilot was doing and what condition the airplane was in before the accident. And now they are finding their way into cars. The technical name for the devices is event data retrieval units (EDRUs). They work continuously, but only save in memory the data recorded in the last five seconds before a crash. At impact, the device also records what researchers call delta-v, the velocity of the crash itself. (A crash into a brick wall, for example, at 20 mph, would have a delta-v of 20). What EDRUs do is yield critical information about crashes, especially when there are no bystanders available. "This is the only unbiased eyewitness available," said John Hinch, a research engineer at the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA). According to the NHTSA, there are 6,335,000 severe car crashes a year, or 17,350 a day, in the United States. "Cars are designed in labs and tested with certain benchmarks against walls, curbs and potholes," Hinch said. "But in the real world ... we really don't know how a car will behave in every situation. The devices provide us with real-life data that will help manufacturers develop better crash sensor technology." The data also can help police and insurance companies figure out what happened, Hinch said. Latest models have them General Motors Corp. (GM) and Ford both have begun installing black boxes in their latest models. Since 1999, EDRUs have been put in the airbag sensor systems of nine of GM's model lines to record pre-crash vehicle speed, engine rpm, whether or not the driver applied the brake and how much foot pressure was applied on the gas pedal. The black boxes are put under the driver or passenger seat or under the dashboard and have been built into the Pontiac Firebird; Chevy Camaro and Corvette; Buick Park Avenue, Regal and Century; and Cadillac SeVille, El Dorado, and DeVille. The latest EDRUs are the third generation of a device first installed by GM in the late 1980s. The early version recorded whether the driver had his seatbelt on and how much time elapsed between impact and airbag deployment. The second version, introduced on some cars in 1994, also recorded the velocity of the crash. Secrecy limits data Ford has installed what it calls a Personal Safety System, a limited version of the EDRU, on its Taurus and Mercury Sable model lines. Ford's system uses sensors to analyze certain crash conditions and automatically deploy the most suitable safety devices for the situation, including dual-stage airbags for the driver and front-seat passenger. GM, however, is the first manufacturer to make the data accessible to consumers. This spring, a tool will be introduced that w
Call for Help
Hi, Microsystems Software Inc has filed a lawsuit against 2 programmers who have broken CyberPatrol's security allowing users to circumvent the program and gain access to the block list. While their site is still up it is time to get mirrors of the site up and running before it is taken down. I am currently mirroring the site at: http://www.openpgp.net/censorship/index.html The original site is at: http://hem.passagen.se/eddy1/reveng/cp4/cp4break.html Anyone putting up a mirror please contact me and I will add your URL to the list of mirrors on my webpage. You help is greatly appreciated!! tks, -- --- William H. Geiger IIIhttp://www.openpgp.net Geiger Consulting Data Security & Cryptology Consulting Programming, Networking, Analysis PGP for OS/2: http://www.openpgp.net/pgp.html ---
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Re: Iridium [was: None]
At 2:34 PM -0500 3/16/00, Dave Emery wrote: >On Thu, Mar 16, 2000 at 11:00:54AM -0500, Trei, Peter wrote: >> >> It may be bankrupt as a commercial entity, but there are other well-heeled >> groups who may take it over. >> > >> I suspect those satellites may well be active for a long time to come, even >> if not available for the non-elite. >> > > There has been talk, perhaps not grounded in reality, of >actually using the deorbit capability built into the satellites to >remove the constellation by forcing the birds to reenter and burn up. It >has been claimed that this might be necessary in order to get maximum >tax writeoff for the loss. It is certainly in general true that >companies in the USA seem to need to physically destroy obselete or >unneeded equipment in order to satisfy the US tax code and get maximum >writeof, apparently if there is any question of residual value things >get sticky. Look, sorry to sound grumpy, but you are just speculating about what has been widely, widely reported in the news. Read Yahoo or Lycos or any other such source. It's frustraing watching people just speculating and reporting what they they have heard as "talk." The plan to deorbit the 66 satellites will go into effect soon. Tomorrow night at 11:59 the phone service will be turned off, unless a buyer is found (or some other last minute funding arrives). Deorbiting is essentially necessary to get rid of the the junk in orbit. Keeping the satellites on station requires money (for ground controllers, etc.), and replacements would have to be launched as needed to keep the system viable. It is simply _not_ the case that they can just be left in orbit with no costs and used as needed. --Tim May -- -:-:-:-:-:-:-: Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, "Cyphernomicon" | black markets, collapse of governments.
Re: Iridium [was: None]
On Thu, Mar 16, 2000 at 11:00:54AM -0500, Trei, Peter wrote: > > It may be bankrupt as a commercial entity, but there are other well-heeled > groups who may take it over. > > I suspect those satellites may well be active for a long time to come, even > if not available for the non-elite. > There has been talk, perhaps not grounded in reality, of actually using the deorbit capability built into the satellites to remove the constellation by forcing the birds to reenter and burn up. It has been claimed that this might be necessary in order to get maximum tax writeoff for the loss. It is certainly in general true that companies in the USA seem to need to physically destroy obselete or unneeded equipment in order to satisfy the US tax code and get maximum writeof, apparently if there is any question of residual value things get sticky. The problem with keeping the system going is that the gateways and spacecraft tracking and operations both cost substantial money per month to operate - also the cost of replacing bad satellites is obviously significant and becomes more of a problem over time. An incomplete constellation with gaps in coverage at random times would be less interesting to most users. I do believe that the US government has looked at the prospect of buying the system, and decided it wasn't worth it. > Peter > > -- Dave Emery N1PRE, [EMAIL PROTECTED] DIE Consulting, Weston, Mass. PGP fingerprint = 2047/4D7B08D1 DE 6E E1 CC 1F 1D 96 E2 5D 27 BD B0 24 88 C3 18
Re: Call for Help
"William H. Geiger III" wrote: > Anyone putting up a mirror please contact me and I will add your URL to > the list of mirrors on my webpage. I'm already being sued for mirroring DeCSS, so it doesn't matter much whether I have another lawsuit coming, right? :) mirror added at http://www.lemuria.org/mirrors/CP
RE: Iridium [was: None]
-Original Message- > From: Dave Emery [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > On Wed, Mar 15, 2000 at 02:18:12PM -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > Subject: satellite snooping patent > > > > The spy who bugged me > > > >Why make it easy to eavesdrop on > >satellite telephone calls? [...] > Unfortunately for its investors, IRIDIUM is bankrupt and the > service is scheduled to be turned off on March 17th - two days from now > - if no buyer for the system appears. Most probably IRIDIUM will > become space junk as it has only been able to attract about 20,000 > subscribers (far fewer than the 500,000 or so needed to make the system > profitable) and the satellites aren't readily adaptable to providing > wideband data connections so redirecting them seems unlikely. [...] > Dave Emery N1PRE, [EMAIL PROTECTED] DIE Consulting, Weston, Mass. It may be bankrupt as a commercial entity, but there are other well-heeled groups who may take it over. A few days ago, Bo Elkjaer posted that "RED CROSS SINGLED OUT AS TARGET FOR ECHELON", with links to a (since blocked) powerpoint presentation at a government site. It looked to me as if the 'Red Cross' reference was merely a handy piece of clip-art to represent all NGOs. However, the penultimate slide of the presentation made a reference to 'Securing Iridium'. I suspect those satellites may well be active for a long time to come, even if not available for the non-elite. Peter
