From: Sean Sutherland <seans@pobox.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 1996 11:18:12 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Snake-Oil FAQ
Message-ID: <19960918235435406.AAB287@maverick>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


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To: wendigo@pobox.com, cypherpunks@toad.com
Date: Wed Sep 18 18:54:08 1996
> I think a blacklist of that sort is inherently bad.  I would much rather
> have the public be able to RECOGNIZE SYMPTOMS of snake oil, rather than
> just be spoon fed a list of good products vs. bad products.  Pardon the
> cliche, but if you give a man a fish ... etc, etc.

Not only that, but you're also looking at a potential lawsuit, unless such 
a list were compiled and managed through the use of a nymserver.  Since 
there's no way, within reasonable limits, that a cryptogrpahic program can 
be proven bad, then a lawsuit is inevitable.  I could potentially see a 
list of products which have "methods which have been proven ineffective in 
securing data against determined attacks" such as DES, etc., but otherwise, 
it's just begging for trouble.
- ---
Sean Sutherland         | GCS/C d- s+:+ a--- C+++ V--- P L E- W++ N++ K- w 
PGP Key ID: E43E6489    | o O-(++) M--  V PS+ PE++ Y++  PGP++(+) t--- 5+++ 
http://pobox.com/~seans | X++ Rb++ DI+ D+ G e- h! !r y

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