From: jrochkin@cs.oberlin.edu (Jonathan Rochkind)
Date: Mon, 19 Dec 94 10:39:28 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: cypherpunks mentioned in Z Magazine
Message-ID: <ab1b810d000210042927@[132.162.201.201]>
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There was an article in Z Magazine about the RC4 disclosure, and IP and
information in general on the internet, in which the cypherpunks were
mentioned.  They got a lot of information confused about cypherpunks, but
over all it was an interesting article.  Here's the first portion of the
article, in which cypherpunks were given prominence.
If anyone wants to write them and clear up their confusion between
anonymous remailers and mailing lists, or other errors about the 'punks
(which generally cast us in a worse light then we should be), their address
is:
Z Magazine
18 Millfield St
Woods Hole, MA 02543

********
Pandora's Mailbox;
RC4 a secret no longer
by Mark Chen

On September 9 there appeared on the Cypherpunk's Internet mailing list a
short piece of computer code purporting to be RSA Data Security's secret
RC4 cipher algorithm.  RC4 is one of the most widely used commercial
ciphers, but its internals have for years been a guarded trade secret--a
status that changes within hours, as the program fragment, which simple
tests revealed to be the genuine article, traversed the the farthest
corners of the Net via e-mail, bulletin boards, and file transfer. State
Department export regulations, as well as intellectual property laws, were
smoothly rendered moot. As Cypherpunks founder Tim May says, "National
Borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."
        Soon after RC4 hit the Net, RSA Data Security (RSADSI) issued a
statement that read in part: "It has come to RSA Data Security's attention
that certain RSA trade secrets, in the form of confidential and propietary
source code, have been misappropriated and disclosed..."
        "...Not only is this act a violation of law, but it's publication
is a gross abuse of the Internet. RSA has begun an investigation and will
proceed with legal action against anyone found to have violated its
intellectual property rights."
        Setting aside the questionable legal basis of these threats, why
doesn't RSADSI bring charges against the person who originally released the
code?  The answer is that they don't know who did it. The code was
distributed through a mechanism called a "mailing list," a system that
distributes e-mail to people who have signed up to receive messages on a
given topic. For example, if you were interested in fish, you might sign up
for an aquarium hobbyists' list. People could then send email to the list
server, and the e-mail would be forwarded to everyone on the list. RC4 was
posted to the Cyperpunks "anonymous remailers" list. When an anonymous
remailer receives a message, it strips off all of the sender information
and remails the message under an anonymous pseudonym. Thsi effectively
breaks the link between sender and recipients, and makes tracing
impossible.
        The intended purpose of these remailers is to allow free
distribution of various intellectual "commodities" whose distribution is
ordinarily discouraged by law or custom. A Cypherpunk faction called the
Information Liberation Front has long used anonymous remailing to
distribute inaccessible, expensive, copyrighted literature. Moreover, the
remailers serve as technological guarantee of the right to free speech.
They allow unpopular opinions to be voiced, while protecting the authors of
those opinions from retribution.
        Far from being a "gross abuse of the Internet," as RSADSI
maintains, the distribution of RC4 was a case of the Internet doing what it
does best--propogating ideas. While this act may or may not have been a
violation of human-made laws, it was a faithful exercise of the natural
laws of information flow... [etc etc]