[fc-discuss] Financial Cryptography Update: IP on IP

[iang@iang.org]

(((((((((((((((( Financial Cryptography Update: IP on IP ))))))))))))))))

                           September 06, 2005


------------------------------------------------------------------------

https://www.financialcryptography.com/mt/archives/000538.html



------------------------------------------------------------------------

One class of finance applications that is interesting is that of
developing new Intellectual Property (IP) over the net (a.k.a. IP). 
Following on from Ideas markets and Task markets, David points to
ransomware, a concept where a piece of art or other IP is freed into
the public domain once a certain sum is reached.

http://www.theoretic.com/projects/ransom

People seem ready for this idea.  I've seen a lot of indications that
there is readiness to try this from the open source and arts
communities.  The tech is relatively solvable (I can say that because I
built it way back when...) but the cultural issues and business
concepts surrounding IP in a community setting are still holding back
the push.

http://horde.org/bounties/

The CIA has decided to open up a little and build something like what
we do on the net:

========8<====
Opening up the CIA
Porter Goss plans to launch a new wing of the CIA that will sort
through non-secret data 
 By TIMOTHY J. BURGER
http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1090889,00.html

       Aug. 15, 2005  
In what experts say is a welcome nod to common sense, the CIA, having
spent billions over the years on undercover agents, phone taps and the
like, plans to create a large wing in the spookhouse dedicated to
sorting through various forms of data that are not secret-such as
research articles, religious tracts, websites, even phone books-but yet
could be vital to national security. Senior intelligence officials tell
TIME that CIA Director Porter Goss plans to launch by Oct. 1 an " open
source" unit that will greatly expand on the work of the respected but
cash-strapped office that currently translates...
========8<====

The reason this is interesting is their obscure reference to
translation, which we can reverse engineer with a little intelligence: 
the way that the spooks get things translated is to farm out paragraphs
to different people and then combine them.  They do this so that nobody
knows the complete picture and therefore the translators can't easily
spy on them.

Now, this farming out of packets is something that we know how to do
using FC over the net.	In fact, we can do it well with the tech we
have already built (authenticated, direct-cash-settled, psuedonymous,
reliable, traceable or untraceable) which would support remote
secret-but-managed translators so well it'd be scary.  That they
haven't figured it out as yet is a bit of a surprise.  Hmm, no,
apparently it's scary, says Eric Umansky.

http://www.ericumansky.com/2005/08/this_is_good_ne.html

Unfortunately, they didn't open up enough to publish their article for
free, and on one page at least Time were asking $$$ for the rest.  More
found here:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1090889,00.html

========8<====
... foreign-language broadcasts and documents like declarations by
 extremist clerics. The budget, which could be in the ballpark of $100
 million, is to be carefully monitored by John Negroponte, the Director
 of National Intelligence (DNI), who discussed the new division with
 Goss in a meeting late last month. "We will want this to be a
 separate, identifiable line in the CIA program so we know precisely
 what this center has in terms of investment, and we don't want money
 moved from it without [Negroponte's] approval," said a senior official
 in the DNI's office.
 
 Critics have charged in the past that despite the proven value of
 open-source information, the government has tended to give more
 prominence to reports gained through cloak-and-dagger efforts. One
 glaring example: the CIA failed in 1998 to predict a nuclear test in
 India, even though the country's Prime Minister had campaigned on a
 platform promising a robust atomic-weapons program.
 
 "If it doesn't have the SECRET stamp on it, it really isn't treated
 very seriously," says Michael Scheuer, former chief of the CIA's Osama
 bin Laden unit. The idea of an open-source unit didn't gain traction
 until a White House commission recommended creating one last spring.
 Utilizing it will require "cultural and attitudinal changes," says the
 senior DNI official. Sure, watching TV and listening to the radio may
 not sound terribly sexy, but, says Scheuer, "there's no better way to
 find out what Osama bin Laden's going to do than to read what he
 says." --By Timothy J. Burger
========8<====
 
So what's this got to do with Intellectual Property?  Well, all the
systems that will work to distribute IP over IP (and especially what is
being discussed at the moment) also look uncannily like systems
designed to pass intelligence around.  It's no wonder - they are both
combining small parts from many places and creating greater works from
it.  Content management is not the exlusive domain of the recording
world.

-- 
Powered by Movable Type
Version 2.64
http://www.movabletype.org/