At 05:27 PM 11/19/95 -0800, Greg Broiles wrote:
... If A wants to send messages to B, but B doesn't want to receive them, should A be forced to stop sending?
My rambling $.02: I haven't thought all this through, but I have an emerging stance. Just this week I've started ploughing through the Cyphernomicon, and was smacked in the face with the eminently pragmatic Mr. May's statement that any law that cannot be enforced should not exist. Up until, say, this week, I'd always been in favor of Caller ID. I'd figured if anyone wants to call me, I have the right to know who it is. By default, I had adopted this position concerning email. Now, one day I will receive an anonymous email. Will I be offended? Maybe. Can I do anything about it? Not likely. Anonymous communication is only going to get easier. Current congressional prattling notwithstanding, the onus of responsibility will have to shift to the recipient. For example, I could configure my mail program to automatically throw away any incoming message with "anonymous" in the "From" header. (Or any message from *@pseudo.goldenbear.com, for that matter) If junk mail continues to bother people, it's only a matter of time until mail programs' filtering capabilities become much more sophisticated. (Of course, for all I know, there already ARE programs that do what I'm about to propose.) People can maintain a "do not accept from" list, containing every anonymous remailer they've ever heard about, or an "accept only from" list, containing just the people they wish to converse with. I think it's this second option that will become increasingly important. Sure it's your right to send me whatever the hell you like, just as it's my right to ignore you completely. Bringing this back to my hobby-horse of Caller ID, you end up with even greater protection than an unlisted number--let the whole world know my number--no one'll get through unless I already know him. And then in the brave unregulated future, if you make a new friend, you merely swipe his public-key business card through your PDA, which adds it to your "accept calls and emails from" list. And to take a stab at another pair of Greg's questions, if A is sending messages from his account on X's system to B, and B doesn't want to receive them, should B have the right to make X stop A? No. (Not that I think the law is going to realize that any time soon.) Should X have the right to stop A? Hell yes--it's his system. Let A find a more open-minded ISP if he doesn't like it. Corey Bridges Security Scribe Netscape Communications Corporation 415-528-2978