Jonathan Cooper wrote:
Criminalize anonymity, and tell the internet providers to figure out how to enforce it or face confiscation.
Which would probably amount to sniffing all packet traffic.
If that ban was implemented, so would ways around it be implemented. I would prefer that they not need to be invented but if they must be, they will be.
This same topic--the outlawing of anonymity and anonymous remailers--is also being debated on the Cyberia list, as many of you know. (Timely, I guess, because of the Siegel comments, the Lewis article, and the Church of Scientology threats.) The ways around such a ban are so patently obvious that any such "ban" is unenforceable. I wrote a piece on this for the Cyberia list, but this was my single most important point: If anonymous mail is outlawed, then the anonymous mailers can attach real names. To wit, all mail from a famous remailing site in the Netherlands could be marked as being from "Hans Brinker." This would presumably meet the letter of the law, if not the "spirit." (I always did hate this "spirit.") Further, sites which "forward" anonymous mail, or mail from "Hans Brinker," are in most cases precluded by the ECPA from screening this mail or otherwise examining it. I see no prospect whatsover that a ban on anonymous mail could be implemented, enforced, or upheld in the courts. --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. Cypherpunks list: majordomo@toad.com with body message of only: subscribe cypherpunks. FAQ available at ftp.netcom.com in pub/tc/tcmay