Office of Hollywood Security, HollSec

[Tim May]

On Friday, October 25, 2002, at 10:53  AM, David Howe wrote:

at Friday, October 25, 2002 6:22 PM, bear <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> was seen to
say:

The implication is that they have a "hard problem" in their
bioscience application, which they have recast as a cipher.

The temptation is to break it, *tell* them you have broken it (and offer
to break any messages they encrypt in it just to demonstrate) but dont'
tell them how you did it.
That would probably be even more fustrating for them than the problem
was :)

(This post applies mainly in the U.S. The U.K. may be different.)

Yes, but check very carefully whether one is in violation of the "anti-hacking" laws (viz. DMCA). By some readings of the laws, merely trying to break a cipher is ipso fact a violation.

(And by arguments that are admittedly more of a reach, "not telling them how" could be interpreted by some lawyers and courts as extortion.)

Such is our legal system now that the Bill of Rights has been eviscerated in the name of the Office of Hollywood Security, HollSec.


--Tim May
"They played all kinds of games, kept the House in session all night, and it was a very complicated bill. Maybe a handful of staffers actually read it, but the bill definitely was not available to members before the vote." --Rep. Ron Paul, TX, on how few Congresscritters saw the USA-PATRIOT Bill before voting overwhelmingly to impose a police state