At 2:35 PM 6/25/96, Hal wrote:
The wording of this restriction is a bit ambiguous. Technically if I choose to resend someone else's mail I am not transmitting it anonymously or under a false name, especially if I make clear what I have done. He is anonymous, not I. .... If I run an anonymous remailer on my home PC, connecting to WorldNet to download the mail, decrypt it, scramble it, and re-send it under my name but with a disclaimer attached telling what I have done, I have not posted or transmitted anything anonymously or under a false name. The source of the material I choose to transmit, as long as it is legal, is not something under AT&T's control.
I agree with Hal's points, but I suspect that these technicalities will be ignored when the first _complaint_ reaches the DeathStar's administrators. "Your account has been cancelled." I suspect other major ISPs will adopt similar language, absent a vocal lobbying group for anonymous messaging capabilities. On the other hand, what happens to the AT&T customers who are using anonymous message services for the "politically correct" uses? Namely, to post messages to rape support groups, child-abuse groups (so-called "survivors," in modern PC parlance), and homosexuality groups? Will AT&T cancel their accounts for hiding under a veil of pseudoanonymity? (Or just require that their identity be "escrowed"?) --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."