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California Bill Would Require Phone Crypto Backdoors
Trailrunner7 writes with this except from On The Wire: A week after a New York legislator introduced a bill that would require smartphone vendors to be able to decrypt users' phones on demand from law enforcement, a California bill with the same intent has been introduced in that state's assembly. On Wednesday, California Assemblyman Jim Cooper submitted a bill that has remarkably similar language to the New York measure and would require that device manufacturers and operating system vendors such as Apple, Samsung, and Google be able to decrypt users' devices. The law would apply to phones sold in California beginning Jan. 1, 2017.
Of course, "smartphone vendors" wouldn't be able to decrypt voice calls sent using VoIP software that was encrypted outside their domain of influence.
During initial set up, flip on encryption... there you go, you can have that one for free Apple...
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
Wouldn't be the first time you couldn't buy something in CA.
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
Don't see a (R) after a politician's name? Must be a Democrat. Want to see if I'm right?
DING! Winner winner chicken dinner.
Not that both big parties aren't corrupt as hell, but this is such a petty affectation...
Film at 11 Next the law of gravity will be repealed. Then for good measure we will print money out of thin air... oh wait, we do that already.
5 out of 6 people enjoy Russian Roulette & 6 out of 7 Dwarfs are not Happy
Next, they will criminalize possession of a phone or other device containing any encrypted data that cannot be decrypted on demand, without assistance from the possessor.
(When strong and safe encryption is outlawed, only outlaws will have strong and safe encryption.)
the NSA probably paid nothing. the vendors "paid nothing" as well. this is a $hakedown of the vendors. campaign donations or else.
Encryption is known to the State of California to cause cancer.
If the topic of a post is about a proposed legislative bill, is it really so difficult for a news organization (or even a lowly Slashdot submitter) to provide a link to said bill so that there might be at least a small chance of informed (hahahahaha) discourse over the particulars?
No, I'm not new here.
The new phones must come equipped with the California admissions package.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
for the decryption keys to get stolen. Saying, "I told you so, you fucking retard," never gets old.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
How fortunate for these candidates opponents who will soon be receiving contributions in response.
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
I can't find the bill text. Is Feinstein a co sponsor, I bet so.
Didn't we win this battle in 1991?
Land of the free? Home of the brave? How's that working out for you?
Oh, wait, is it brave to cower in the corner jumping at shadows in case the bogeyman comes along? I've lost track?
Now cue a bunch of people telling us how they're still free. Go ahead, I love a good laugh.
Papers please, comrade. If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Leave it to an ex-cop to seek powers for law enforcement at the cost of individuals. I am disappoint. Not the least bit surprised, but disappoint. If this passes, I would be completely in favor of both Apple and Google saying "screw you guys, we're picking a new home".
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
Don't just vote Republican. Vote for someone who has a record of keeping promises to increase our liberty and decrease government power, taxation, and spending.
China would be so proud!
None of it matters when you have no idea what the SIM card is doing or the GSM radio. Both run operating systems we have no clues about the capabilities of.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
as anybody else noticed that the whole android O/S is running as a virtual instance under your telephone's SIM architecture?
What does that sentence even mean?
I work with about a 120 people at a startup in downtown SF, and we have 4 known Republicans. They've infested everything here.
"The law would apply to phones sold in California beginning Jan. 1, 2017"
So, that'd be OK. They don't block possession, use, or carrier registration, just sales by vendors that are located in the state. This may also prevent mail-order purchase from the Apple Store in say, Michigan, because Apple has a "business presence" in California. (collection of sales tax usually works that way) OTOH if you get one off ebay from someone whose store is outside CA, you're fine.
I'd personally like to see Apple very publicly give the finger to the CA legislature and make it extremely clear in very blunt terms that iPhones not being for sale there is the direct and exclusive result of the residents of the state electing retards and shills to make their laws. Losing CA for a year or two won't hurt them much, and will pay off big in the long run for future sales in CA as the voters stomp to the polls to vote with their iphones.
This isn't like most of the "extreme" legislation they pass on things like emissions, product safety, and other consumer protection. The public gets NO direct or clear benefit from this legislation, and results in a noticeable impact to a huge portion of the voters in the state. The legislature will try to justify it of course, but there just isn't enough spin available to keep that top from falling on its face.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
I'm hoping that one day there won't even be a California.
Still praying for that massive earthquake!!
I'm not in this guy's district so his stupid web page won't accept my comments, could someone who is in his district please call or email and explain to this guy why what he wants to do will just make law-abiding citizens less secure, not aid law enforcement in any substantial way, and in the end only help criminals and terrorists? Thanks.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Sounds like Mozilla. They didn't do adequate background checks before promoting someone, and it was later discovered he contributed a massive amount of money($100 IIRC) to a Republican group.
I figure it would be treated the same as a non carb compliant engine. Perfectly legal to own just not to buy or sell.
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
And this won't just affect New York and California. Smartphone manufacturers won't produce separate systems for states that require encryption backdoors and those that don't.
I agree that they probably won't produce separate hardware, or even separate operating systems, but I'd say the jury is still out on whether they'd produce parameterized software with a "pretend encryption" / "real encryption" flag set depending on what state the device is intended to be sold in.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
This just catches the low level criminals and normal people. Mafia, KGB & Israeli Mossad will just use older iPhones and other methods.
Unfortunately the Republican party in California is so dysfunctional that they couldn't nominate a viable candidate for dog catcher. They'd have to go to the Democratic party and ask them who they should put on the ballot.
I'd like to know what kind of reception this bill is getting from the other assembly members.
-- I have monkeys in my pants.
Yeah.... but if even *one* Californian makes it to the Nevada shore... the cycle will start all over again...
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
Lawmakers pass a bill declaring pi = 3, saving the world many thousands of hours of tedious calculation. Hooray!
With the OS having root over any keystrokes before "encryption apps" and a company having designer links in CA.
Re: "ecrypted and unlocked by its manufacturer or operating system vendor" would be covered by laws like the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA)...
As for devices been super secure, recall the years of news about "Cops Say They Can Access Encrypted Emails (January 11, 2016 )
https://motherboard.vice.com/r...
Note the access news going back a few years...
Also recall the issue of why any backdoors are really bad for any nations telco system:
SISMI-Telecom scandal, an illegal domestic surveillance program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... and the
Greek wiretapping case 2004–05 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...–05
Weaken any encryption and any staff, ex mil, ex staff, ex contractor, former telco or gov staff, other nations staff, anyone with skills or the cash can get the same deep access...
Also note the news from Australia about who gets that no court needed "law enforcement" role long term locally.
61 agencies apply for metadata access (18/01/2016)
https://delimiter.com.au/2016/...
"... a comprehensive list of agencies which had applied to receive accreditation as enforcement agencies under the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act, which will give them access to make metadata requests."
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Such software would be outlawed, clearly.... it won't stop people who expressly want it from getting it, but it creates a barrier for entry such that most law-abiding and not very technologically competent people will simply not want to be bothered with the inconvenience of bypassing it.
Of course, in the end, the only people that they will be able to spy on are the people who haven't cared enough about their privacy to worry about it and are probably not doing something that the feds are trying to catch anyways, which means that it will do absolute diddly at helping law enforcement.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
> I'd personally like to see Apple very publicly give the finger to the CA legislature and make it extremely clear in very blunt terms that iPhones not being for sale there is the direct and exclusive result of the residents of the state electing retards and shills to make their laws. Losing CA for a year or two won't hurt them much, and will pay off big in the long run for future sales in CA as the voters stomp to the polls to vote with their iphones.
You say a year or two, I'm thinking it would take a week or two for Californians to get awfully pissed as they're told "sorry, it's illegal in California to sell you a smartphone. The only people who can change that are your state reps; here are there phone numbers."
Yeah.... but if even *one* Californian makes it to the Nevada shore... the cycle will start all over again...
Typical /.-er. More likely it will take one male Californian and one *female* Californian...
The issue politicians forget is when you add back doors to devices you are also adding a back door for criminals and other foreign entities. The reality is government departments are rubbish at securing information for an extended period and once the information is out every criminal and foreign government now has a free pass to all your citizens private information. Also just saying there is a back door alerts criminals and they will start looking for that back door.
Naaa, the NSA probably just has some juicy dirt on them. That is how it works in a surveillance-state. No surprises here. Expect full-blown fascism in, say, 20-30 years or so.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
How fortunate for these candidates opponents who will soon be receiving contributions in response.
Yes, especially since he was elected with a staggering 50,188 votes, with his opponent receiving 40,220 votes (source). So, less than 10.000 farmers in California got him his seat. Shouldn't be too difficult to get him out at his next election.
I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
ISIS has just release a new Android encryption App:
http://www.defenseone.com/tech...
There is no prohibition in this law against using encryption applications. ISIS will help you get around California's encryption laws.
When I take out my SIM card, my phone still boots.
Unless both a mathematician and sociologist working together can show in a hard proof that crypto with a backdoor is as secure as crypto alone I maintain that crypto with a back door is not crypto so the request is impossible to fulfil and simply moot.
Like the lawmakers that tried to make PI = 22/7 the request is simply a violation of reality, proving once again the politicians have no concept of reality.
You can't Think Different, if you think differently. That would mess up the brand message. Duh.
But fails to penetrate a device used by organized crime, terrorists, a technologically adept pedophile, or a well connected businessman.
Is Joe the Plumber the threat here? because that's about all this regulation will stop.
PS - I usually buy my smartphones on aliexpress and import them to California.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
My aunt's niece’s brother in law's daughter died form a terrible case of encryption, complicated by her WiFi allergies, you insensitive clod!
Globally that was solved in the early 1980s with simple international letters and anti terror agreements hidden away by most federal governments. Every cell phone is open to police as sold by design.
No nations was going to need to have 2 or 3 production runs. No designer was going to need dual design teams for a US ready or EU ready phone.
No nation was going to get a secure phone while the global public avoided police ready brands from another nation. Trade cost was not going to be a negative with dual designs and an informed public making selections about crypto branding.
A cell phone would keep the local radio recording out, some of the press out vs what hardware could be used but be totally open to any police force.
The "So why waste money protecting it" is really the propaganda needed to ensure people still use a phone with brands that give total access to federal law enforcement and mil for free.
The other fear is from federal law enforcement that local police will stop talking with a live cell phone mic on or using other features. Internal affairs likes to ensure all local police enjoy their phones at lot too and feel safe with them. They *know* they are safe to have a cell phone powered on at all times as they cannot get access to the same make, brand per generation.
That court support has to keep on been rejected to keep people talking.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Would they be elected/appointed if they say that they will propose such bills before elections? Full of lies. But hey, hopefully a lot of people will just buy phones (unlocked!) from overseas and pay no CA sales tax which is outrageous in itself.
I miss the cold war.
Back in the good old days the "free west", would tout it's political and social freedom as why it was on the side of humanity.
Something for the oppressed behind the iron curtain to dream of attaining and seeing their over lords for the tyrants they were.
Then down came the Berlin Wall.
Today you'd think the history books on the communist era in east Europe were the manuals/manifestos for state control in the West.
The only thing our governments needs to be better than today is IS.
Penal Code 1546 just specifies that they're not allowed to get access without a warrant; the arguments that they'll be fronting for the bill is that, without a backdoor, complying with the provisions of PC1546 won't do them any good, because they still won't be able to decrypt the contents of the device. Never mind that the backdoor is only as safe as the rectitude of the people with access to the backdoor keys; create a backdoor and give its keys to the government, and then you have only the government's assurance that they'd never use it for illegally spying on individuals, that every single employee who would have access to this data has the moral qualities of a Lensman, and that no one outside the government could possibly ever get hold of these keys.
Use software written in Russia, a VPN service in China and a ISP in the US, by the time they untangle the bureaucratic red tape to decrypt your packets, you'll be safely dead from old age!
Min
On the whole, I find that I prefer Slashdot posts to twitter ones because I don't get limited to 140 chars before
Never had a need for a gun, anyway so no loss there.
... stating they will not be selling iPhones in CA any more. See what happens then.
Same here. I have a few old phones without SIM cards that I let my kids use as Wi-Fi gaming devices. The phones boot up, connect to the Google Play and Amazon app stores, and run apps just fine. One phone displays a missing SIM warning when it boots, but that's the only difference.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
I have been worried that using encryption will attract attention of law enforcement who will know I something to hide. What a tremendous relief that I will now look just like another law abiding citizen using escrow crypto. While at the same time, I will use this escrow crypto for 99% of my communications, including my embarrassing but legal porn collection. And then, just when I hatch my evil plots, I will encrypt a small amount of data with my own crypto, before stamping escrowed one on top.
Now the government has no reason to suspect me unless they get a warrant, sift through ALL my stuff and manage to realize that a second of noise in a 2 hour movie file contains my real secrets.
I for one welcome our new technologically illiterate overlords!
that every single employee who would have access to this data has the moral qualities of a Lensman, and that no one outside the government could possibly ever get hold of these keys.
I just had to step in and say: I'm SO GLAD to find someone else who liked that series =)
I also agree completely and believe this scheme is doomed to fail.
This will have about as much chance of sticking as the "non-California vehicle emissions fees" they used to charge people for bringing in cars from outside California (i.e. want a phone with strong encryption? Take a trip and buy it outside California.).
(1) The car emissions fee was declared unconstitutional (it violated the Interstate Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, just like trying to restrict bringing phones with strong encryption would violate the ICC).
(2) If you bought a phone with strong encryption outside California because California made them illegal, California would have a hell of a time trying to charge a "use tax" on the thing, since it would be (effectively) a sales tax on an illegal product. Ask the State of Utah how successful its Marijuana Tax Stamp Program was in combatting either marijuana, or the purchase of marijuana without paying the cigarette tax on it.
Both of the bills -- the New York one and the California one -- are pretty much sponsored by grandstanding morons who apparently feel they are not getting enough press, so they have to try and get something in front of the news organizations in the hopes that it will be picked up on the next slow news day.
I eagerly await the day that SF/LA hippies are told they can't buy the new iPhone.
> Pretty soon you won't be able to buy anything in California.
You'll be able to buy them little stickers that say something is known to cause cancer to the state of california.
Apple isn't going to need to worry about doing a run for California and a run for the rest of the country for very long. If they caved in to this law then every other state and/or the federal government would pass a law requiring this (along with every other country seeing that they could get away with it) and there would only be one phone model to worry about very soon. The one with the back door.
if I was making cellphones, that's what I'd do. cut 'em off like Murderistan. the people would rise up and throw those asshats out of office in two days. probably throw them off a cliff into the sea. pity, some poor shark would die of a tummyache.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Oh there will never be a shortage of overpriced real estate. You can always buy some of that :)
It's another example of California "me too" politicians attempting to appear that they are bettering society.
Take a look at Leland Yee for similar tactics.
His sentencing is scheduled to occur next month.
(Anti gun dude that was caught by FBI trying to ship in illegal firearms in containers from the Philippines).
He plea bargained to corruption and they dropped the firearms charges.
This fuggin' state is run by a bunch of nuts.
The news tells us that Germany is a surveillance-state and yet that doesn't seem to stop you from peddling nonsense. Why is that?
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Private bill would require ponies for all.
Requiem for the American Dream
To deliver ponies to the special people in spite of third-party VoIP software, additional coercion would be required.
Requiem for the American Dream
California Bill, Indiana Jones and Dakota Johnson, You 'murkins are a funny lot.
-- Make America hate again!
Is it just me
Yes.
Your statement makes no sense.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
He has the advantage, for the sake of celebrity but nothing else, that he can say anything that he likes because he will never be in a position to implement any of his ideas. His own party will not let him.
It's stating problems to be popular but never offering solutions that will be carried out - an old political trick.
It's easy to make sense when you say something is wrong and it genuinely is a problem. But that's not a solution. All he's done lately is make a lot of noise, get attention and delay bills for a few hours without actually stopping them.
I'm disappointed.
I thought those California girls were supposed to be DD.
I think, the poster might be referring to some recent Qualcom chipset, where the modem is part of the northbridge.
Thus some core critical part of the chipset run a firmware that is *NOT in anyway modifiable or accessible by the end-user* (for legal reason).
Instead that part of the firmware is controlled by the service provider who pushes automatic update over the air (to both the SIM card it self and to the modem).
Due to its critical position in the chipset, that firmware can also have access to some critical parts like video buffer, RAM, GPS, etc.
That's often the case with Qualcomm chipsets.
Replicant has a wiki explaining the difference between good and bad platforms.
My personal experience: my WebOS powered HP Pre3. Runs on such a Qualcomm chipset. OTA update to the modem firmware will cause THE WHOLE PHONE TO HANG AND CRASH.
As mentioned by the wiki, there are also phone that use a Qualcomm chipset without a modem (for tablet) and then eventually (for phone) plug an *external modem* into it as it should.
My personal experience:
- my Sailfish powered Jolla Phone. According to specs, it runs on a Qualcomm chipset that doesn't have a built-in modem. When my ISP sends an update, the *separate modem* part reboots gracefully, the rest of the phone barely notice it (i just get a pop-up asking me to re-enter my PIN).
- similar behaviour used to be with my older webOS Palm Pr : used an OMAP chipset (those don't have any modem inside) and a separate modem chip. Phone didn't crash on modem-firmware problem (but, back then, OS wasn't that good at rebooting the modem. Some time turning 3G on/off could do the trick, sometimes I would need to ask the whole phone to reboot. SIM card can be changed live, but won't necessarily work without a reboot).
To make a metaphor:
Classic style smartphone chipset :
(like the Ti OMAPs, the Qualcomm without modems, etc. : modem is a separate chip.)
It's like your laptop. You have a laptop, you're in charge of your laptop, you connect whatever you want on it. You can install the OS you want on it.
Like on your laptop, if you want to have connection, you plug a separate thing into it like a USB 3G/4G modem.
This modem only takes care of the connection.
If anything goes wrong you can simply unplug and replug the USB modem.
(Well as the modem in a smartphone isn't a physically separate circuitry, but only a separate chip, you don't actually take it out physically. It requires a bit additionnal circuitry. But the basic image stands: the modem doesn't and can't affect the rest of the system).
Qualcomm style smartphone chipset :
(i.e.: with the modem built right into the northbridge of the smartphone chipset):
It's like your fiber/DSL/cable modem. It has USB ports where you can plug additionnal storage. It has analog ports where you can plug phone handsets.
BUT it's a device that is basically lent to you by the ISP. The ISP is in charge of remotely upgrading the firmware that runs it.
The equivalent of "getting Linux to run on it", is plugin an USB keyboard and USB screen on it, and trying to do something with it (or using a raspbery Pi, while using the modem as a NAS to access everything that stays plugged into its USB ports).
You have access to an interface with you keyboard and screen, the it's still the modem which is in charge of everything, not only the connection, but also all the storage you pluged into the USB port.
If the ISP wanted (or received a government letter ordering them to), they could access your storage and siphon your data: because it's plugged into the modem's USB port and they are the one in charge of the system running here.
That the case with some recent Qualcomm-based smartphone, where the modem is in charge of controlling the RAM, the mass-storage, the GPS, etc.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
It's not the physical SIM-card itself.
See my other answer in this thread.
And see the Replicant wiki.
On some chipsets by Qualcomm (which are extremely popular) the *modem part* serves as a northbridge to the chipset.
It handles some critical component like RAM, sound hardware, and OS is running on a CPU core that is a client to that.
And for legal reason, the entity responsible for the code running both on the physical SIM card it self and running in the modem firmware is the service provider.
Regard TFA, that means that even if Google decide to say "Screw you!" to NY and CA legislation, the phone service provider is just one governemnt letter/order away from getting all your data.
(because, remember: all your data is on a flash medium that is directly plugged into the modem running the service provider's firmware. Your Android is running on a CPU core that is a client to this modem).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
It's not the CPU core and memory that is inside the physical SIM.
As I have explained in my other answer in this thread, it's the modem part.
The modem - which for legal reasons runs a 3rd party closed source firmware provided by your service provider - of several Qualcomm chipset works as "sort of northbridge" to the chipset.
The modem (and its 3rd party firmware) is in charge of several critical parts of the phone, which may include RAM, audio hardware, GPS, etc.
Android runs on a CPU core that function as a client to this modem an accesses everything thourgh it.
Replicant have complained about this in the past and documented in their wiki.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
The poster isn't exactly *wrong*.
He just have poorly understood and reinterpreted in own words, an actual problem that does exists for real:
Some qualcom chipset have the modem inside the main SoC and that modem works as a "sort of northbridge" for the SoC.
The modem is in charge of handling RAM, audio hardware, GPS, etc.
That modem, for legal reason - runs a 3rd party firmware that is provided by the phone service provider.
Android runs on a CPU core that is client to this modem to access the phone resources.
See my other answer in this thread.
And see the Replicant wiki.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Everybody here seems to think that the vendors care. They don't. They know that there are just a minority of people who would want such a phone without encryption. The rest does not care.
The people do not care that they have less and less rights. Because if they did, we would have seen it by now.
So out of cost reduction, they just add the back port on all phones, because it will be cheaper. Only if some state or country explicitly forbids back ports will they have no back ports and even that I would not be sure of.
It is just easier to assume that all phones already have back ports and all that they want is making it legal. Remember: Paranoia is only when you think you are being followed, not when you know you are being followed.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Once these backdoors are put in place - hack the hell out of them. Make consumers nervous that their data can be stolen.
Then let's see what the politicians want to do.
Of course - only the data on the phone must be decrypted. If I use, say, Google docs - that data is "in the cloud." does that count?
I want my speration of pwoers and warrents back. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects
Common criminals have much more to gain from this idea than the NSA does.
It's embarrassing that people are only now beginning to pretend to care about communication security, thanks to NSA getting caught. (Have to say "pretend" because it's not like most people are really doing anything different. But at least they're talking about it. I guess that's something.)
But if we want to take all the threats that plaintext communications exposes us to (our own government, other governments, organized crime, insurance companies, nosey neighbors, political witchhunters, ad profilers, and yes: even the greatest enemy (our own fears, since even when you're not being watched, if you think you might be watched then you're still not free)) and put all that under the blanket label "NSA," that's fine. Just fucking fine.
It's bullshit, but it's ok. Whatever it takes to start going things right. If you wanna pretend the NSA is the threat that's ok because at least, they really are a threat. (Not sure they make the top-ten list, but hey, whatever.) Wear the label, NSA. Big Brother, be the proxy for all the little brothers. You'll do just fine, NSA.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
I won't answer your question directly because I know that the very next post will merely deride me for my choice rather than bringing anything constructive to the table.
I do have a "favorite" and I'm well aware that my favorite isn't perfect and has been hypocritical at times or has certain views with which I don't agree.
But nobody's perfect, and nobody but me will ever agree with me 100% of the time.
So I don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good-- especially when my favorite wouldn't impose upon me any of the things with which I disagree.
Guns have approximately no effect on your ability to fight back against the machine. They may stop a crime or get you killed or something like that, but against the authorities they're irrelevant except in the very short run.
People with small arms can't stand against the Army. They can make nuisances of themselves, if enough of the local population supports them, but that's about it.
Good crypto is much more effective. Secret, reliable, easy communications are great to coordinate things.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
I'm not claiming that Apple is morally out of the ordinary, but they do have reasons to really not want back doors, they do have clout, and they have a long record of doing things their way and figuring they'd probably sell well.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Correction: he contributed a massive amount of money to an anti-human-rights campaign. Party alignment had nothing to do with it.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
The first two books were add-ons, and also the "Storm" Cloud book, sometimes referred to as the seventh. Children of the Lens tied in with the first three.
If you read the central four in order, you get onion layer after onion layer of evil, while Triplanetary starts with Arisians vs. Eddorians.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Clearly, you haven't paid much attention to Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. They did not succeed in defeating invaders. They did succeed in making their lives complicated, and did a good job in operating where the modern armies weren't at the time. Particularly in an urbanized country, resistance does need to involve winning battles.
As far as the Revolutionary War goes, the militia were able to win some clashes, but to do any good they had to be able to win battles at least somewhere, which was what Washington's army was able to do after getting trained by von Steuben. They also had access to modern military weaponry.
Guns aren't going to defend against the government.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Jim Cooper, the Californian, represents a district that includes Elk Grove, site of a big Apple facility, as well as various other parts of the south-of-Sacramento area. His political connections are much more with the Sacramento-area cops than with the Apple employees he represents, unfortunately, and also he's unfortunately a Democrat, so unless he gets a primary challenger, he's going to win re-election. But he's only a first-term Assembly member, so there's still a chance to knock him out.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks