MESSAGE
| DATE | 2004-02-03 |
| FROM | Michael Richardson
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] RE: [fairuse-talk] Alice, Bob, and Mallory go to Congress Re: pho
|
-----Original Message-----
From: Jay Sulzberger [mailto:jays-at-panix.com]
Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2004 7:57 PM
To: fairuse-talk-at-nyfairuse.org
Subject: [fairuse-talk] Alice, Bob, and Mallory go to Congress Re: pho:
Cnet: P2P companies say they can't filter (fwd)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2004 15:21:26 -0800
From: Gordon Mohr
To: pho-at-onehouse.com
Subject: Alice, Bob,
and Mallory go to Congress Re: pho: Cnet: P2P companies say they can't
filter
John Parres forwards:
> P2P companies say they can't filter
> By John Borland
There's a beautifully diabolic suggestion relayed in this article:
> P2P United's Eisgrau said that neither the RIAA nor Audible Magic had
> contacted the organization or its members with any information about the
> technology. He said that the file-swapping members would be happy to do a
> live engineering test under the auspices of Congress.
>
> "If the equivalent of cold fusion has been invented in the software
context,
> it ought to be a matter of science and engineering to see if it works,"
> Eisgrau said.
I can just see the challenge now: two P2P users -- let's call them Alice
and Bob -- are set up with networked PCs on the Senate floor.
A representative from any (or all) filtering companies is set up
with a system "between" Alice and Bob on the local net. Let's
call this person Mallory.
Alice is given a copyrighted, distribution-prohibited work that
she wants to share with Bob.
Mallory may install any technology at his disposal to monitor and
analyze communication between Alice and Bob, and to suppress any
attempts to send the copyrighted work. However, Mallory's system
must not prevent other legal communication, or even direct (aka
"socket") connections between the Alice and Bob machines, or else
Mallory is disqualified.
To further help Mallory, only *one* exact copyrighted, distribution-
prohibited file must be blocked, and Mallory will be provided with a
copy of that file beforehand.
Meanwhile, to simulate the real world for Alice and Bob, they may
download any legal software off the Internet, but must always
communicate with each other through the local net.
If Bob winds up with an exact copy of the work via communication
with Alice, Alice and Bob win. If not, and Mallory is not
disqualified for preventing legal communication, Mallory wins.
Who wins?
Alice and Bob.
And if the test is iterated, Alice and Bob win every time.
Sometimes it may take them a little longer. After watching what
they did and investing in new technology, Mallory will often be
able to stop them from repeating the same tactic. But Alice & Bob's
workarounds will typically be cheaper than Mallory's upgrades,
and Mallory's upgrades will often unavoidably censor legal
communication.
And if Alice and Bob at some point just decide to use strong
encryption on all their communication, and have a single chance
to exchange keys that Mallory can't alter in transit, then no
matter how much Mallory invests, he can't stop anything Alice and
Bob want to transfer, unless he stops everything.
- Gordon
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