Timothy C. May writes:
I didn't they *are* singled out, just that the Crime Act has some implications for remailers, should the authorities seek to apply the law.
Didn't mean to imply you were: I was just thinking that this is the first legal manifestation of using the threat of a Horseman against anonymity on the net, of any sort.
In any case, perhaps a way around this can be found: what we may need is "stealth remailers," software that will behave as a remailer through non-obvious "security holes" with correct cooperation from software the original user runs.
Any port 25 in a storm? Exploitation of holes is a classic case of "security through obscurity," useful only for short periods of time, and never very certain.
Well, "security holes" is a bit loose of a term; I was thinking out loud, as it were. The concept, as evolved later, is to distribute a set of features to be added to the RFC-822 protocol that will allow security, including remailer support (though not stated as such). This isn't really an STO: it's more the providing a suite of features: including features that we want along with features that will help spread the whole set.
Stealth remailers is a good thing to work on, I agree. I'd first settle for having more offshore remailers.
Sure. But that doesn't help the channel between inside the US and outside -- IE, the channels that the NSA is chartered to eavesdrop on (yes, as Eric likes to say: the NSA and the FBI are different. But imagine that at some point in the future the NSA, hard pressed to justify its existence, starts passing data to other agencies). Right now, there aren't that many IP channels to outside the country, so they're pretty easy to tap.
Under the Crime Act and RICO statutes, we may be committing consiracy merely by talking amongst ourselves. (Maybe this is an exaggeration, as I'm not a lawyer and have no desire to become one.)
That thought crossed my mind, too, but since we aren't talking about any illegal activities, merely protocols that might facilitate the same while also facilitating privacy, I think we're fine. Of course, given the stretches made by Law Enforcement for civil forfeitures, the E911 Neidorf thing, and others, perhaps it's time to start seriously looking at hacking list software to create mailing lists that are fully anonymous and encrypted. Has anybody started on such a project? -- L. Todd Masco | "A man would simply have to be as mad as a hatter, to try and cactus@bb.com | change the world with a plastic platter." - Todd Rundgren