Firewall Wizards mailing list archives
Fwd: SPAM: Important Legislative Alert
From: David Collier-Brown <davecb () canada sun com>
Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 08:05:41 -0400
The following was posted to the Samba (SMB protocol) newsgroup, and may be relevant to the security-related lists as well... --dave -- David Collier-Brown, | Always do right. This will gratify some people 185 Ellerslie Ave., | and astonish the rest. -- Mark Twain Willowdale, Ontario | davecb () hobbes ss org, canada.sun.com M2N 1Y3. 416-223-8968 | http://java.science.yorku.ca/~davecb
--- Begin Message --- From: Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton <lkcl () switchboard net>
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 18:06:41 +0000
this has serious ramifications for the "nt domains for unix" project. luke. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 13:25:57 -0500 From: Simple Nomad <thegnome () NMRC ORG> To: NTBUGTRAQ () LISTSERV NTBUGTRAQ COM Subject: SPAM: Important Legislative Alert June 23rd, 1998 - The World Intellectual Property Organization treaty has already passed the US Senate and is close to passing in the House. The treaty would make it illegal, with extremely stiff penalties, to break security schemes without the permission of the company that makes the product. Programs like Pandora would be made illegal. People could not publish vulnerabilities in products and encryption schemes, as done by NMRC in the Hack FAQs. We would go back to the days of security vulnerabilities only circulating in the underground as mailing lists like Bugtraq, NTBugtraq, and Netware Hack are made illegal. Even products such as Net Nanny and CyberPatrol, which "bypass technology" by reverse engineering how various products work would become illegal. Technically you could not refuse a cookie from a web site, so web sites would be allowed to write files directly to your hard drive and you couldn't do a damn thing about it. This is plain and simple security through obscurity. Intellectual property owners are using the legal system to protect their products instead of the tried and true method of open systems and public review. How will we know if anything is secure if all the "white papers" and reports on a system's security are paid for by the manufacturers only? Unbiased, "Consumer Reports-like" groups will be outlawed. Say goodbye to NMRC, L0pht, Counterpane, and any consulting firm that does security assessment of commercial software. In addition, you will not be able to "quote" information from the Internet without written permission. For example, I lifted the bulk of this text from www.l0pht.com and re-edited it -- and under this proposed legislation this would be illegal without getting written permission. Reporters would be unable to "lift" quotes, students would be unable to "lift" research material, and you would be unable to "lift" security info for detailed reports without gaining the author's permission. This is NOT the way the print media operates -- this could impact everyone you know. Imagine pulling CD-ROMs from libraries and computers from elementary schools. H.R. 2281 passes and you have started down this path running. The Nomad Mobile Research Centre is vehemently opposed to this proposed treaty. It has serious freedom of speech implications. It also gives companies a license to produce shoddy, inadequate systems without fear of exposure. Call your House Representative today and voice your concerns. .o. Simple Nomad .oOo. Data warrior, knowledge hunter/gatherer www.nmrc.org .oOo. thegnome () nmrc org .o.
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