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Encryption For All Sponsored by German Govt.
fiffilinus writes: "The German Ministry of Economics uses the CeBIT computer fair as a forum to propagate its GnuPP (Gnu Privacy Project -- I know, it is *not* GPG, but GPG is part of the package) encryption package to the public, giving away CD-roms with the package. The CeBIT press release can be found here. The download for those who can't make it to CeBIT is here. The package is available in English too, but the page itself has to be put through the fish, as usual. Finally a government that moves in the right direction ..."
...sponsorship is not the same thing as ownership.
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Why is it that we need to go to Germany to get software to protect our freedom of speech?
What is wrong with this picture?
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The fish is a bit weird on the translations. Anyone got a link for a better translation engine?
Isn't Brazil another goverment that has been known to enbrace open source? However embracing open source, and pushing open source warez to your population is another. This sets a new presedence in that regard.
I think here in the USA, the goverment would rather do the oposite. Like the key escro stuff a few years ago, and now the DMCA.
It isn't a lie if you belive it.
Of course, by giving you the source they've also given you the opportunity to check for backdoors.
Blaming GW Bush for the Iraq war is like blaming Ronald McDonald for the poor quality of food.
So why would the government of Germany want their citizens to talk without knowing what they arte talking about? In itself it doesn't make sense.
The same question can be asked as as to why our founding fathers gave us the bill of rights. I guess that sometimes people are just nice. Sometimes, very rarely, the governmrnt does the right thing.
Yet more evidence, if any was needed, that /. really needs a '-1 Needlessly paranoid' moderation item.
Blaming GW Bush for the Iraq war is like blaming Ronald McDonald for the poor quality of food.
Their primary motive is to let German individuals and corporations protect themselves from Echelon and similar projects.
...
Which makes me think - no wonder France and Germany have their own Linux distributions and the U.K. doesn't! A grain of security concerns, a grain of national pride, and perhaps a grain of software nationalism, etc...
Get the funny part of the press release (I think they kind of screwed up the translation):
---------
...is safe and corresponds to international standards. It would not be recommended (sic!) to use standard software in security sensitive areas and the Ministry explicitly warns to do so in its press release.
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And of course they can't push MS products at CeBIT, it wouldn't help them in any way. But they had to do something and Linux has always made a good means for low-cost self promotion
With a few thousands illegal patents delivered by europe software patent factory, it would be fun to count how many patents this government sponsored software infringes :). Hopefully
some German politicians clearly said no to patents. After France, there's hope to get a software patents free Europe if Germany officials say no too.
First they decided to get rid of Windows in the government and are moving to OSS for all government IT installations if I remember correctly. Now they're promoting hard encryption for all their citezens. This seems like a government that truly cares about the rights of its citzens, especially where privacy and technology are concerned.
/. Enlighten us, please...
What is the catch? What makes Germany less or more desireable for people who are concerned about their rights as they relate to technology, privacy, or otherwise?
I know there are some english speaking Germans reading
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
So why would the government of Germany want their citizens to talk without knowing what they arte talking about? In itself it doesn't make sense.
It does make sense: The German government is more concerned about the US government snooping on German citizens than it is about being able to do such snooping itself. It's a case of finding the lesser of two evils; they evidently decided that not being able to snoop on their citizens was less of a problem than having the US government snoop on their citizens.
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
The Ministry for Security and Information Technology has another CD on their CeBIT stand - and for free (I guess "as in beer") order. I don't know if that's the same CD, but this one is about security in Internet/eMail, too.
Here's the link from the BSI: http://www.bsi.de/presse/aktuell/sich_cd.htm.
Two Worlds - One Sun [Spirit]
Open source software is becoming more supported by EU countries for political reasons (Government should use non-proprietary tools), social reasons (open access), quality reasons (speaks for itself), and so on. There is quite a lot of money being spent on open-source development by various EU agencies, the German government being just one example of many. Sadly the UK government is in Microsoft's pocket at the moment :(
That is less naive than you are foolishly cynical. But being cynical is chic I suppose, reguardless of how asinine the position you have to adopt is.
It might seem incredible, but in this case the government is acting on behalf of the people. Almost as if it felt that it might be accountable in some way, or as if there was some connection between the people and the government...
It's not that they want strong crypto for their citizens, but for their companies. It's the minister of economics who is a supporter of crypto and open source, while the minister of inner affairs basically tries to cut down all of the citizens democratic rights , including that of privacy.
Believe me, though there are some cool things going on here in germany (like the Bundestag getting equipped with linux servers), it's not all roses
Programming can be fun again. Film at 11.
Although most younger Germans are very friendly to Americans, many of the older folks are downright hostile. If you start speaking to them in English, they walk away.
Maybe those folks didn't speak English? It is Germany, you know. :)
To tell you the truth, I didn't encounter any of that when I was there. The people seemed really friendly. Of course, I have blond-haired blue-eyed German genes in me, but my attitude still screams "American!" from a mile away. :)
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
And something else is new: "Adele" (adele@gnupp.org), an exercise roboter for practising the procedure of encryption and decryption as often as the entry-level user will need it.
:-)
Cool! This could make it very easy and comfortable for a beginner to get the hang of using encryption. It might be inconvenient or embarrassing for some to send many test messages to friends, so this would make it easy (even fun?) This could also help new users get acquainted with with the idea of key servers.
This is an excellent idea, folks
A dingo ate my sig...
The only possible anser is that they have developed a high speed decryption computer, and can read everything. They feel people will feel safer sending emails, and give away more.
Maybe they are getting ready for WW III, and don't want the embarassment of having their encryption totally cracked again.
Europe has changed in 8 years. I don't know whether these laws in Germany have changed or not, though I suspect the EU mandated they be removed since they were in effect protectionist.
That being said, sometimes a bit of regulation is a good thing. If the gov't makes rules to force businesses to prove their product work and deliver what the commercial says, is that an infringement of liberty? Right now, you can buy a $5 blender at kmart that will work - once. The stronger consumer rights in (parts of?) Europe mandates warranties that keep such scams off the market. Things cost a bit more, but they appear to be working better and for longer than the stash I bought when I lived in the States.
Basically, more liberty for the consumer, less for the business. I believe that businesses that abuse their liberties should have those taken away, just like what happens when the citizens behave irresponsibly.
Stop the brainwash
Ha ha. Your expletives merely serve to illustrate that you should up your prozac dose.
What's your suggestion? No governments?
Apart from the obvious fact that more that just governments out there want to look at your data, without them well, there'd be no government, at least until someone next door marched in.
None of this makes the German move one in the wrong direction whether or not governments are the primary source of concern. They probably shouldn't be, but we all need our bogey men I suppose.
Somehow, I doubt the government's good intentions.
...)?
I actually am serious about the following. I've seen more people here express the same sentiment. Do you people really not trust government in general that much? I know I don't trust the American goverment either, but here in Europe we don't have the feeling we need something like a right to bear arms to defend ourselves from the government. The government still consists of people. People we choose, and people who work for us, the people. Sure, politicians are politicians, no matter where they are, but there are enough checks and balances that I don't think anyone in Europe seriously thinks the government is working more for its own good, rather than for that of the people it's serving.
Yet from what I observe, there are very few people anywhere in the world who believe the government of the USA to do the same.
Now I wonder... Does this make people believe that Europeans are naive, that our governments are just as bad? Or do you actually trust the American government after all? (And if not, doesn't that say something very significant about that government?) Or did you never realize a government can actually work for the good of the people, providing them security not only from itself, but also from other governments which aren't to be trusted as much (Echelon, Carnivore,
I'm trying to ask this as non-offensively as possible, while still pointing to where I think the differences can be found. If you are offended, please, realize that was not the intent of this post. I simply really wonder about how you people from across the pond look at trusting both your own government and other governments.
what the fuck is everyones problem, why does everyone assume every move made by every goverment everywhere is evil. Come on, this is a good move done by a goverment for once. you should stop looking for hidden motives and enjoy the fact that somewhere out there there is a goverment not run by a deush-bag from texas who values a 1984 style goverment. Germany is making an already free technology more available to its citizens. I will give the German gov a BIG thumbs up about this one. No doubt there are many coders that will check to make sure there is no backdoor in the software, and if there is, you'll hear about tommorow on theregister.co.uk and /. the day after that.
Also another big thumbs up to germany from going from nazisim in WW2 to where they are today.
why is everyone so god damn paranoid, if you guys hit the ol' pipe without me I am gonna be pissed
While Germany does not have a First Amendment, it does have an "Artikel 5 Absatz 1 Grundgesetz". Here is my attempt to translate it to English:
Everyone has the right to freely state and distribute his opinion in spoken, written or imaged form and to obtain information from publicly available sources without limit. The freedom of the press and the freedom of reporting on radio and TV are granted. There is no censonship.
This article made me laugh as I thought of the fact that one of the main reasons the allies in WW II were able to decript and read Enigma traffic was that the Nazis were convinced that it was unbreakable. Germany is learning a lesson from history and going with a reviewable protocol and implementation, it would seem. Then again, human factors played an important role in breaking Enigma, and I would figure similar poor use of even modern cryptography could lead folks of an intellect similar to those who broke enigma to break selected PGP, GnuPP traffic.
That also makes me wanna quote Vizzini from the Princess Bride: "Inconceivable". I wonder if the German high command ever had that thought.
Man Encryption -> Nazis -> Princess Bride. I didn't get enough sleep.
C8H10N4O2 | Developer > Code
Having lived on both sides of the pond I have to say that I am North American and distrustful of governments. In Germany, France, etc people are trustful and look to the government for guidance.
>>but there are enough checks and balances that I don't think anyone in Europe seriously thinks the government is working more for its own good, rather than for that of the people it's serving.
You are kidding right?
Have you looked at the laundered money going through the individual political parties in Germany and France? For example stats in Germany (Speigel TV March 17, 2002) say that there are officially 220 corruption cases. Think about it OFFICIAL CORRUPTION SCANDALS!!! Corruption in the sense of faking, changing, laundering, etc!!!
Have you see how the German government for work faked the numbers to make it look like the government was actually doing something?
Have you heard of the move by the German government to not consider people over 50 unemployed but in pre-retirement? This way the the unemployment numbers would look better...
Did you see the how Volkswagon and Mercedes would not sell or service their own cars not bought in Germany? And the government did NOTHING! Why corruption...
Sorry, but European governments do NOT always look in the best interest of the people. I DO LIKE the skepticism bred into you living in Canada and the US.
But I do see hope in Mario Monti.. He is the "DOJ" of Europe and HE IS changing things for the better. He is slapping fines and changing business practices, even when the governments are not HAPPY!!!
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
What if I want to buy a Blender that only needs to work once, and all I have is $5? In America I have that choice, but you are saying in Europe I do not?
That's not my definition of consumer freedom.
BTW I am German (lived in Canada and the US for 20 years, but currently live in Switzerland).
Back to the issue, No....
Europeans tend to be more corrupt than North American's... Seriously!
It is partially because of the social system which is a system of one party taking advantage of the other. For example in Europe you pay a ton of tax, people hide their money left right and center. In North America people tend to be pretty honest about taxes. Ok North Americans hide a few cents here and there, but nobody does outright tax evasion.
As an example of scandal. I lived in France and people cheated on their taxes and entered lower amounts than was written on their income slips. Think about it. The government can check that SO easy and yet they cheat. And once when at a dentist the guy asked cash or invoice? I said what is the difference? Cash you get better service and we send the money to a tax haven. Invoice you get ok service. That is corruption!
Or consider the problem of robbery in the UK? People buy and sell stolen goods and they think it is ok so long as the robbery was from a company.
Or consider how Germans will eat all day at an all you can eat bar. Notice that they do not exist much in Germany? There is a reason. My cousin starved himself for two days so that he could sit all day at an all you can eat bar. That was when companies tried all you can eats for a short time.
My point is that Europeans have a funny attitude to "good" behaviour. They tend to push the line and do not do what is accepted behaviour. This is also why North Americans tend to find Europeans rude.
Not to say that North American's are perfect, they tend to be too prude and extreme in things (drinking in public, anti-smoking and fat free anything). But that is a topic for another day.
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
that is because the first -- and thus most important -- article reads "the dignity of humans is untouchable" (well, my translation :) ) and so it overrides the no censorship part.
for example, stating that there was no holocaust is considered touching the dignity of those who were murdered in concentration camps.
good thing.
--
making up good sigs is a hard thing to do.
Germany DID NOT ban the Nazi party for no reason. Actually, the gov'ment is checking wheter (sic) they should be banned or not.
The NPD - an existing right-extremist German party, which you are obviously referring to, because the German government is currently trying to have it banned - is not the same thing as the NSDAP, which was the Nazi party during the Third Reich.
The NSDAP, on the other hand, has been forbidden. See the Verbotsgesetz.
I personally know a couple having this problem. I didn't pull it out of my ass.
Their lawyer is handling several couples in this boat.
The fact that most of them don't have this problem doesn't mean it isn't a chronic problem. Two US Presidential administrations have been involved in this particular case.