Internet Relay Chat

Note that IRC, unlike MUDS, has been designed to ensure 'true-names'. While
you do use nicknames, anyone can find out the machine name and user ID you are
logged in from, with a /whois. Anytime you join or leave a channel, your full
machine name and user ID is displayed to everyone, along with your nick. This
is different from any (possibly pseudonymous) e-mail address you register for
incoming mail.

In #wares, people typically trade names of unauthorised FSP sites (such as the
one in the LaMacchia case), which normally remain active for less than a few 
weeks. Though entry to IRC channels can be by invitation only, everyone knows
everyone else's real (in the sense of machine and ID) identity.
Not CP-friendly at all.
It would be nice to have a #Cypherpunks channel, though... many of us don't 
mind revealing our identities to each other, and it could increase the 
frequency of interactive sessions greatly.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rishab Aiyer Ghosh                            "What is civilisation
rishab@dxm.ernet.in                             but a ribonucleic
Voicemail +91 11 3760335; Vox/Fax/Data 6853410      hangover?"
H-34C Saket New Delhi 110017 INDIA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Mon, 25 Apr 1994 rishab@dxm.ernet.in wrote:

> 
> I've noticed some discussions of IRC (Internet Relay Chat), both as a possible
> model for CP interactions, as well as a location for implementations of 
> BlackNet (in #wares, etc.)
> 
> Note that IRC, unlike MUDS, has been designed to ensure 'true-names'. While
> you do use nicknames, anyone can find out the machine name and user ID you are
> logged in from, with a /whois. Anytime you join or leave a channel, your full
> machine name and user ID is displayed to everyone, along with your nick. This
> is different from any (possibly pseudonymous) e-mail address you register for
> incoming mail.

Fraid not....it's a trivial matter to fake the username, and if yer a 
smart cookie, faking the hostname is just as easy.

> 
> In #wares, people typically trade names of unauthorised FSP sites (such as the
> one in the LaMacchia case), which normally remain active for less than a few 
> weeks. Though entry to IRC channels can be by invitation only, everyone knows
> everyone else's real (in the sense of machine and ID) identity.

actually....the people on #warez (not -s, -z) just sit around and discuss 
how eLEeT!@#!@$! they are, then kick everyone off, hardly a revolutionary 
movement.


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	   	     mcable@[jade,emerald,cs].tufts.edu
       \|/		  wozz@wozz.ext.tufts.edu	   Matthew Cable
      <0-0>		wozzeck@mindvox.phantom.com	   MTUC Jackson Labs
----o00-O-00o-----    http://www.cs.tufts.edu/~mcable/     Tufts University
     GCS/MU -d+ -p+ c++++ l++ u++ e+ m++(*) s++ !n h+ f* g+ w++ t+ r- y+
*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*

With some experimentation, it is possible to have partially anonymous
channels (all messges to/from the channel can appear as a singular name)
but all inter-server messages must retain full identity which is a loss.

Also, commands such as "/who #channel" and "/names #channel" currently
return full info...and "/whois" will show you being on it...these can
be changed, easily enough, but to have text traverse server-server with
no id. would not work if you desired /kick and /mode.  I'll work on
fixing these three commands tonight.

I might add, that this seriously screws with the most common (ircII)
client and any others which keep their own private channel membership
lists because the same person always enters and leaves >:-)

Do cypherpunks believe this kind of anonymity is of any use ?

av

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Darren Reed spake:
> Do cypherpunks believe this kind of anonymity is of any use ?
> 

	I don't quite understand exactly what your server does, but
there exists a server which provides anonymity by leeching off a
standard server.

	For example, a user desiring anonymity would do:

/server irc.caltech.edu

and then

/server anon.irc.host portnumber

	And if there is one of the anon servers running on that
portnumber then the person appears on the irc completely
identity-protected.



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> Note that IRC, unlike MUDS, has been designed to ensure 'true-names'. While
> you do use nicknames, anyone can find out the machine name and user ID you are
> logged in from, with a /whois. Anytime you join or leave a channel, your full
> machine name and user ID is displayed to everyone, along with your nick. This
> is different from any (possibly pseudonymous) e-mail address you register for
> incoming mail.

Site name may be true, but there is no insurance that the user ID is 
right.  IRC asks the client for the username at startup.  It is possible 
to recompile IRC and have it search for a environment variable containing 
the user ID you wish to use (or put it on the command line if you like.)  
I have done this myself.
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