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[IP] more on re: The eBay-Skype deal is a blow to open standards





Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: September 18, 2005 1:49:11 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] re: The eBay-Skype deal is a blow to open standards
Reply-To: dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx


[Note:  This comment comes from reader Steve Schear.  DLH]


From: Steve Schear <s.schear@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: September 18, 2005 10:18:15 AM PDT
To: dewayne-net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [Dewayne-Net] The eBay-Skype deal is a blow to open standards


At 11:22 AM 9/17/2005, Dewayne Hendricks wrote:


Good commentary on the eBay-Skype deal: <http:// socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000923058521>. Worth reading! Personally, I'm moving away from Skype to Gizmo <http:// www.gizmoproject.com/>. My Gizmo handle is 'wa8dzp'. See you there!


The reason I haven't gravitated to open standards is that all of the services using them., AFAIK, don't offer any end-user controlled privacy nor open source implementation for code exam. (Please correct me of I'm wrong.). I agree with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brandeis (Olmstead v. United States ) that wiretaps are an unwarranted and illegal invasion of the privacy of those not named in court orders who call phones which are monitored.* Unless crypto is end-to-end and open source for clients, forget it.

Also, the open standards-based services all seem to use centralized server systems, and not the decentralized models of Skype, meaning too easy to wiretap and traffic analysis.

Steve

* "Subtler and more far-reaching means of invading privacy have become available to the government. Discovery and invention have made it possible for the government, by means far more effective than stretching upon the rack, to obtain disclosure in court of what is whispered in the closet. Moreover, 'in the application of a Constitution, our contemplation cannot be only of what has been, but of what may be.' The progress of science in furnishing the government with means of espionage is not likely to stop with wire tapping. Ways may some day be developed by which the government, without removing papers from secret drawers, can reproduce them in court, and by which it will be enabled to expose to a jury the most intimate occurrences of the home. Advances in the psychic and related sciences may bring means of exploring unexpressed beliefs, thoughts and emotions."

Later, after some of the types of invasion of privacy that Brandeis envisioned became a reality, his dissent gradually evolved into one of the most frequently cited opinions in Supreme Court rulings. See, for example GRISWOLD v. CONNECTICUT, 381 U.S. 479 (1965); ESTES v. TEXAS, 381 U.S. 532 (1965); MIRANDA v. ARIZONA, 384 U.S. 436 (1966); KATZ v. UNITED STATES, 389 U.S. 347 (1967); EISENSTADT v. BAIRD, 405 U.S. 438 (1972); ROE v. WADE, 410 U.S. 113 (1973)



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