Amiga Plus 1995 #5 & #6/Amiga Plus CD - 1995 - No. 5 and 6.iso/pd/netz/pgp/readme.amiga

PGP Signed Message | 1995-05-25 | 12KB | 214 lines

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Never speak ill of yourself;
friends will always say enough on that subject.
                                                        Bonn, 26th May 1995

Dear Amiga PGP community,

     with notable delay I release the latest version of the ongoing  Pretty
Good Privacy (PGP) project, but I think it was worth waiting  a  few  days,
because the first release of PGP 2.6.2i contained several  nasty  bugs  you
don't need to care about now.

     This version has been compiled from the sources Staale released on 7th
May, with only minor modifications. I wrote a  work-around  for  a  but  in
SAS/C for example, which caused problems with local variables under OS 2.04
or later.  Furthermore, this version has been compiled with  Robert  Knop's
main.c startup replacement code for the original SAS/C module, adding a few
nifty  features  to  PGP's  command  line  environment.  I'll   quote   the
description from the source almost unmodified:

 | As with the standard __main(), this parses the input command  line  into
 | the argv array. However, here, the number  of  arguments  is  unlimited;
 | additionally, one may specify on the command line a list of arguments in
 | a file using the construction "@filename" (without  quotes).  The  named
 | file will be read and all of the whitespace separated arguments  therein
 | will be inserted to the argv array  at  that  point.  Since  the  string
 | parser is written recursively, embedded files may be  nested;  that  is,
 | within one filename referenced on the command line with @, there may  be
 | another filename referenced with @. Memory and stack space is  the  only
 | limit as to how far the nesting may go.
 |
 | Version 1.2 -- this version  supports  stderr  redirection,  similar  to
 | unix, by specifying &filename (or & filename or &"file name" or &  "file
 | name") on the command  line.  stderr  is  redirected  by  opening  first
 | calling Close() on what is currently in __ufbs[2].ufbfh (hopefully  this
 | simulates the  SAS  stdio  destructor),  and  then  Open()ing  the  file
 | __ufbs[2].ufbfh with the specified filename.

     If you think that description is  not  verbose  enough,  please  don't
hesitate to contact Robert Knop <[e-mail]> and to  ask  for
further details. *grin*

     The archive contains two versions of PGP, "PGP.000" and "PGP.020". The
first binary should run on any kind of Amiga architecture, while the latter
has  been  compiled  especially  for  the  68020/030/040   CPU   and   runs
approximately two times faster on these Amigas than the other version. Both
executables are pure and may be made resident to avoid loading and  startup
delays under heavy usage.

     Okay, those of you who use PGP for the first time may wonder  what  to
do next. The best would probably be to finish reading this file.  Then  you
might want to read the "ReadMe.1st" file (if you haven't done so  already),
which contains more generic stuff about this  PGP  version.  After  reading
these files, you should take a look at doc/pgpdoc1.txt and doc/pgpdoc2.txt.

     Please don't try to use PGP without reading at least  major  parts  of
the manual! You won't be very successful. In the past  people  have  always
complained that PGP is too complicated, but there's not much I can do about
that, I'm afraid. "Security" is something complicated  in  its  nature  and
thus PGP is a bit complicated, too. Don't be scared  away  by  the  command
line interface or the not-existing GUI -- after only one  week,  you'll  be
able to use PGP easily. I promise!

     If you want to stay tuned about the latest development in PGPAmiga  or
just seek help with problems you don't  want  to  ask  in  world-wide  news
groups, you might want to subscribe to the PGPAmiga mailing list. Just send
an e-mail to [e-mail] and put the word "ADD" (without
quotes) in the message body. Please just ADD. Not more and  not  less.  The
subject of the mail doesn't matter, by the way.

     After about one day delay you'll receive a notification that you  have
been added to the mailing list. Don't expect to much  traffic,  though,  as
the list is usually pretty quite, except the times when  new  releases  are
out, which is by chance right now. :-) You can post to the list by  sending
e-mail to [e-mail].

     You are also very welcome to  send  me  your  comments,  questions  or
requests privately. My e-mail address is [e-mail]. (People  who
know me for a  longer  time  now  should  note  the  new  address!)  Really
everything is welcome. Sending your questions to  the  mailing  list  might
bring you enlightenment quicker, though, as I am usually  fucking  busy  --
not necessarily vice versa.


     Another important thing that has to be  addressed  is  the  fact  that
Philip Zimmermann, the original  author  of  PGP,  is  deep  into  trouble,
because  the  security  agencies  aren't  very  fond  of   people   writing
mega-secure  encryption  tools  and  then  giving  them  away   for   free.
Subsequently, Phil has encountered some problems. He  has  been  explicitly
told that he is the primary target of the investigation being mounted  from
the San Jose office of U.S. Customs. It is not known  if  there  are  other
targets. Whether or not an indictment is returned in this case,  the  legal
bills will be astronomical.

     If this case comes to trial, it will be  one  of  the  most  important
cases in recent times dealing with cryptography,  effective  communications
privacy, and the free flow of information and ideas in  cyberspace  in  the
post-Cold War political order. The stakes are high, both for  those  of  us
who support the idea of effective personal communications privacy  and  for
Phil, who risks jail for his selfless and successful  effort  to  bring  to
birth "cryptography for the masses," a.k.a. PGP. Export controls are  being
used as a means to  curtail  domestic  access  to  effective  cryptographic
tools: Customs is taking the position that posting  cryptographic  code  to
the Internet is equivalent to exporting it. Phil has assumed the burden and
risk of being the first to develop truly effective tools with which we  all
might secure  our  communications  against  prying  eyes,  in  a  political
environment increasingly hostile to such an idea -- an environment in which
Clipper chips and Digital Telephony bills are our own  government's  answer
to our concerns. Now is the time for  us  all  to  step  forward  and  help
shoulder that burden with him.

     Phil is assembling a legal defense team to prepare for the possibility
of a trial, and he needs your help. This will be an expensive  affair,  and
the meter is already ticking. I call on all of us, both here  in  the  U.S.
and abroad, to help defend Phil  and  perhaps  establish  a  groundbreaking
legal precedent. A legal  trust  fund  has  been  established  with  Phil's
attorney in Boulder.

     If you wish to  donate  some  money  to  Philip  Zimmermann,  you  may
transfer it to an account here in Germany -- what is usually  quite  a  lot
cheaper than transferring it to overseas. Here is the information you  will
need:

        Account owner: Peter Simons
        Bank : Commerzbank Bonn, Germany
        Account No.  : 1112713
        Bank No.  : 380 400 07

     This is NOT my private  account!  It  is  only  used  to  collect  the
donations for Philip. Every single dollar I receive will be transferred  to
the account in the States monthly, with minimum fees.  If  you  donate  any
money, you might want to send an e-mail to me ([e-mail]) and to
Philip Dubois ([e-mail]) to let us know. Sending  a  copy  to  Phil's
lawyer will furthermore make sure that I can by no means keep anything  for
myself as he knows exactly what amount has been given.

     If you need any further information, please don't hesitate to  contact
me under [e-mail] and I will happily try to help.  You may  get
my PGP public key from any keyserver or by fingering [e-mail].

     Please be generous! Consider that PGP is completely free  for  you  to
use and Phil got nothing but trouble in return. One can easily imagine what
a software company had charged you for a tool like that!


     Last but not least a note of more private nature. I can  easily  write
something private now, as more than 95% of my readers have probably skipped
to something else in the distribution right now. :-)

     I have been following PGP and the related tools for  quite  some  time
now and while working on the different versions, I have got to  know  many,
many nice people who I in a strange way call friends  even  though  I  have
never met them personally. However, I just wanted to let these people  know
that I will leave the Amiga platform anyday soon and while I would not only
probably but CERTAINLY forget half of them when dishing  that  message  out
via e-mail, I can reach almost anyone of them via this way.

     Due to the growing network I have to administrate and my work for  the
Institute of Discrete Mathematics, I was forced more and  more  into  UNIX.
And while UNIX is a pain in the ***  for  the  beginner,  it  is  a  damned
powerful operating system for the experienced user -- not  to  mention  all
the fun ones has administrating a system for other users. (Hmm,  does  that
sound sarcastic?)

     The point is, there's a good chance that I'll  convert  to  UNIX  full
time and get rid of my Amiga within the coming months and though  the  vast
majority of the readers will ask themselves right now: "Why the %#$! is  he
telling me all that BS?" I felt like throwing it in.

     I am sure that I will do any releases that are to  come  in  the  very
next weeks, but long term someone else will have to take the project  over.
Maybe Robert Knop can do that? We'll see...


     Even more last than "last" but still not least though, I would like to
thank several people for their continuous support and help.  First  of  all
Robert Knop who wrote major  parts  of  the  Amiga-specific  code  in  this
release and who is furthermore  maintaining  the  US-Version  of  PGPAmiga.
Thanks a lot to Staale Schumacher, too, who is the first PGP maintainer who
actually bothered to include the Amiga-specific changes in the main  source
tree. Subsequently I have to thank not the whole  MIT-PGP  team,  who  have
ignored the Amiga platform for years and made my job very  difficult.  Also
thanks a lot not for consequently ignoring all bug reports from Robert  and
me concerning violations of the  ANSI-C  standard.  Well,  I  guess  that's
life...

     Further thanks go to  Arno  Eigenwillig,  Richard  Gooch,  Andreas  M.
Kirchwitz, Thomas & Walter  Mildenberger,  Frank  Bergknecht,  Michael  van
Elst, Petra Zeidler, Ignatios  Sovatios,  Sylvia,  Judith,  various  Anjas,
Sascha and all the people who have donated money to the legal defense trust
fund. I am sure that I have forgotten a thousand people who I  do  remember
the second, the signed archive has bee uploaded to the FTP server...


     Thank you all for a wonderful  time  and  many  great  experiences  in
approximately three and a half years of PGP'ing.


                                      Peter Simons <[e-mail]>



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