Re: Mindshare and Java

[Rich Graves <llurch@networking.stanford.edu>]

On Sun, 28 Apr 1996, Tom Weinstein wrote:
> Rich Graves wrote:
> >
> > Some of the things a valid signature from Jack the Ripper means:

[True statements deleted]

> > 3. If I am Jack the Ripper, I have a way of proving that the code is
> >    my intellectual property.
> 
> How do you prove that?  If I strip off your signature and sign it
> myself, how do you know it's yours?

Hmm. Very interesting point. You would need to make the signature
technology at least tamper-evident by embedding it "somehow," and
recursing infinitely. Yup, sounds pretty impossible, so I'm sure
somebody's going to come up with an answer. Maybe the one-time signature,
or signatures authenticated by location.

> > 4. If I'm not Jack the Ripper, I can say "That wasn't me."
> 
> No you can't.  How do I know that Jack isn't a nym of yours?

Answered elsewhere. Trusted third party swears you're different. Also,
signatures from different nyms are useful even if the identity
relationship among nyms are known.  Compare the nym "Tom Weinstein,
Cypherpunk" with "Tom Weinstein, speaking for Netscape" and "Tom
Weinstein, can't talk during the IPO." 

> > 5. If I am GNU, I can advertise and "enforce" my copyleft policy.
> 
> How?

OK, you probably can't. This is a special case of #3.

-rich