At 11:57 AM 5/21/96, Jim Choate wrote:
Forwarded message:
Date: Mon, 20 May 1996 18:53:15 -0700 (PDT) From: Steve Reid <root@edmweb.com> Subject: Hiding remailers behind nymservers...?
This 'middle-man' remailer... What does it really accomplish? Sure, the operator is hidden, but that's only because of his/her nym at c2.org... AFAICS, the 'middle-man' has just taken the liability off himself and put it on the unhidden remailers. Why not just use the existing unhidden remailers???
The first thing it accomplishes in my mind is establishing pre-meditation to conspire to the commission of a felony.
No, think of scienter again. And creating something or some service that _may_ be used in connection with a crime does not make the creator a conspirator, unless it can be shown that he was involved in the planning of the crime used with his thing or service. For example, if I open up a car rental place and one of my cars is used in a bank robbery, was I involved in a "pre-meditation to conspire to the commission of a felony."? Clearly not. (And before anyone brings up "required ID" at car rental agencies, such ID is not required by any local, state, or national laws, so far as I have ever heard. It is perfectly legal for me to rent things to people without demanding credentials. A sufficiently large deposit may be enough. ID is often used to satisfy insurance requirements, and to help in collecting any unreturned items.) Now it may be that operating a remailer may be interpreted by some courts as being a "public nuisance," a theory I credit to Brad Templeton, but this has not yet come even close to happening. --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."