--- X-Sender: rgm-int@localhost X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 6.0.0.22 Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2003 22:34:32 -0500 To: Declan McCullagh <declan@private> From: Robert Moskowitz <rgm-int@htt-consult.com> Subject: Re: [Politech] U.S. Postal Service doesn't like anonymous physical mail [fs][priv] In-Reply-To: <6.0.0.22.2.20031028092712.0220ec40@private> Have you given any thought to what it would take to really have this work? Everyone would need a tempus-class mail signer that had a digital cert from some trusted root. They would have to put a unique number on the mailing (160 bits, probably) and then use the signer to create a digital sig of that number and this would also be on the mail. Just about anything else could be forged. Nah, even this really doesn't work. The PO would have to keep a log of all these numbers and make sure they were never reused, to avoid spoofing of even them..... So ANYTHING they do is just window-dressing and a money sink. --- X-Sender: drystane@private X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2003 13:36:06 -0500 To: Declan McCullagh <declan@private> From: Stephen Cobb <scobb@private> Subject: Re: [Politech] U.S. Postal Service doesn't like anonymous physical mail [fs][priv] In-Reply-To: <6.0.0.22.2.20031028092712.0220ec40@private> FYI A back-door form of sender identification has already been put in place for packages. You are not supposed to put Priority Mail packages over one pound into mailboxes without a post office metered stamp. I tried this recently when sending out review copies of my book, accidentally. I used Priority Mail, which is $3.85 regardless of weight if you use a pre-printed envelope. The book weighs under 1 lb so I was sure I was okay, but I later found that the post office scale said each package was 1.1lbs. I found this out because several days later the packages were delivered to my box at the post office, as opposed to being delivered to the friends and clients to whom I addressed them. I then had to go to the counter and have the postal employee place a metered stamp in the value of $0.0 on the packages. This is not a trivial regulation. This particular variation on postal stupidity ruins the otherwise bright idea of fixed rate Priority Mail. Used to be, if the stuff you were mailing fit into the pre-printed Priority Mail envelope you could slap $3.85 on the thing and drop it in a box, pretty much regardless of weight. Quick and easy. But apparently, like my nail clippers, a threat to national security. Stephen _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Wed Oct 29 2003 - 22:35:14 PST