[655] in Cypherpunks
forged Sternlight posting?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (L. Detweiler)
Fri May 28 01:12:38 1993
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Cc: ld231782@longs.lance.colostate.edu
Date: Thu, 27 May 93 23:04:21 -0600
From: ""L. Detweiler"" <ld231782@longs.lance.colostate.edu>
Apparently someone has forged a Sternlight posting on sci.crypt and
alt.privacy.clipper. If the author can hear me: you should be severely
ashamed. I've said before that Sternlight is actually (in a warped way)
a *resource* to the net because of his representation of the NSA and
`fuzzy-brained public' opinion. Without him, we'd have nothing but all
of ourselves in a bland choir.
Cypherpunks, maybe we can help track down the culprit. The forgery says
`recently, some have called me a dupe'. Perhaps it is an allusion to a
recent flame war wherein the counterfeiter participated.
Cypherpunks are sneaky, but not sleazy. I look forward to the day when
digital signatures and other authentication methods make forged
postings like this a strange historical anachronism.
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From: kocherp@leland.stanford.edu
Message-Id: <9305280445.AA09696@cardinal.Stanford.EDU.Stanford.EDU>
To: ld231782@longs.lance.colostate.edu
Subject: Re: Public Apology [ARTICLE IS A FORGERY]
Here's a copy of the forged note, plus my response.
Regards,
Paul Kocher
kocherp@leland.stanford.edu
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article 499 in alt.privacy.clipper:
Path: nntp.Stanford.EDU!headwall.Stanford.EDU!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!usc!c
s.utexas.edu!not-for-mail
From: strnlght@netcom.com (David Sternlight)
Newsgroups: alt.privacy.clipper
Subject: Public Apology
Date: 27 May 1993 01:58:35 -0500
Organization: DSI/USCRPAC
Lines: 36
Sender: daemon@cs.utexas.edu
Message-ID: <9305270624.AA00395@silverton.berkeley.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu
In article <9305270624.AA00395@silverton.berkeley.edu> you write:
>Dear Friends,
>
>Many of you have come to know me through my public analysis of
>encryption technology and the law as I understand it. I have taken the
>past few days to reflect on my positions. I now realize that I myself
>have been misled and in turn may have been misleeding some of you. I am
>very impressed with the quality and clarity of thought that many of you
>on the system have displayed in your numerous and extensive replies to
>my ruminations. Unfortunately, I have also been impressed with the
>misleading and self-serving views presented by my former friend Jim
>Bidzos, and by my colleagues in the United States Government. Recently,
>some have called me a dupe, and, understandably, I have reacted
>strongly. Only now do I realize how right they have been.
>
>Let me now try to explain my current thinking: Democracy, as defined by
>our founding fathers, and the Greek philosophers before them, has as its
>cornerstone free and unfettered public discourse. In our modern world,
>privacy and the ability to speak without fear of disclosure or reprisal,
>is a prerequisite for all but the most perfunctory such discourse. If
>there is one thing I should have learned in my journeys to our spanish-
>and portuguese-speaking neighbors to the south, it is that the
>government can never be relied upon as the guarantor of privacy.
>Contrariwise, it is all too often positioned as the infractor. We should
>not, nay, we must not, allow the trivia of narrow-minded export
>restrictions and the tyranny of questionable patents to stand in the way
>of our personal liberties.
>
>I therefore undertake to present my public apologies to such enlightened
>and forward-thinking members of our community as Daniel Bernstein,
>Vesselin Bontchev, Peter Honeyman, Perry Metzger, and especially Phil
>Zimmermann. I can only hope they will find the generosity to judge me
>not on my past, but on my present and future actions.
>
>--
>David Sternlight Great care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of
> our information, errors and omissions excepted.
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My article to sci.crypt and alt.privacy.clipper follows
Newsgroups: alt.privacy.clipper,sci.crypt
Subject: Re: Public Apology [ARTICLE IS A FORGERY]
Summary:
Expires:
References: <9305270624.AA00395@silverton.berkeley.edu>
Sender:
Followup-To: alt.privacy.clipper
Distribution:
Organization: DSG, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA
Keywords:
In article <9305270624.AA00395@silverton.berkeley.edu>
strnlght@netcom.com (David Sternlight) writes:
>Only now do I realize how right they have been.
I'm quite certain this post is a forgery.
Plenty of things seem wrong here. For example, David doesn't
usually post through cs.utexas.edu (which is reportedly is one
of the least difficult sites to use for forging news articles).
Other things are also wrong with the header...
FLAME MODE:
In my opinion, posting this represents a disgusting violation of
net ethics (and the law). It is frightening that someone could
be so immature as to attempt to damage David's relationships with
Jim Bidzos and others.
Hopefully someone can kill the article before it propigates
too far...
Regards,
Paul Kocher
kocherp@leland.stanford.edu
[I'm sending this to sci.crypt in addition to alt.privacy.clipper,
where a supposed "Public Apology" from David Sternlight was posted.]
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