-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hello, all! The recent posting by Scott Collins about his remailer and the copyright incident illustrates several problems with the remailer system as I see it. I'll keep this brief, but I have a basic, low-level problem with all the remailers I have seen so far - until this issue is resolved, I will never have any faith in any remailer system whatsoever. Every one of the remailers I have seen in operation so far provides a 'real' address to the target system. That is, when (not if) someone is irritated by an anonymous posting, they have only to look in the message header to get an address for their hate mail, legal action, mailbombs, etc. This essentially co-opts the remailer operator along with the anonymous poster with regard to content. (Yes, yes, I *know* that the remailers are supposed to be 'anonymous Post Offices.') As Scott Collins' message explained, *he* (the remailer operator) is taking the heat for the alleged copyright violation, and his correspondent is not terribly impressed with Scott's protestations of innocence. Since Scott indicated that he keeps no logs, he is the sole target; this is grossly unfair to an individual who is trying to provide a service. (Yes, yes, 'Life ain't fair,' but sooner or later you're going to run out of martyrs who are willing to take the fall for abuses of their remailers...) Converseley, there may exist a set of remailer operators that *do* keep logs for the express purpose of dodging the bullet in cases like Scott's; if a message went through that generated enough heat, that sort of remailer operator would waste no time in compromising the poster's identity to get out of the hot seat. In my mind, then, the solution to these problems requires remailers that leave *no trace* of message origins, including the address of the remailer itself. If this is not possible, then I for one will employ other means for anonymous communication. This is not intended to present any specific remailer operator or group of operators in a bad light; in fact, I was particularly impressed by Scott's indication that he did not keep logs. I throw out these thoughts in the hope that they will be considered by the authors of remailer software. - -- ........................................................................ Philippe D. Nave, Jr. | Strong Crypto: Don't leave $HOME without it! pdn@dwroll.dw.att.com | Denver, Colorado USA | PGP public key: by arrangement. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLbQJTgvlW1K2YdE1AQHcjwP6A/tU0zqYq49uh737+BsPMru+YKzWdri5 hgZHxi7r8+yLJKrntqRXUyKGCB2W6dBQ+n6jeOzb6/yXxbYTZ+8nLBpCi2f4ruVb 8j+wbiASs2XTwQv/Vdqfgflpjc28xKRudmZMDOhrf5k8Mh4VLQqAr9vZ6jOyIZRY mZCnJt6BW/U= =lnKI -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----