On Mon, 16 Apr 2001, Greg Broiles wrote:
For instance, legislative attacks on any widespread anonymity infrastructure are pretty much a given when people, most of whom have precisely the kind of idealistic conception of the legal system you describe, realize that law can't touch an anonymous economy.
Yes, the laws can be written, and they will enjoy the same efficiency and success that laws against copyright violation, pornography, prostitution, illicit drugs, and so forth have experienced. Not only can the law not touch an anonymous economy, it cannot prevent one, either.
Agreed, to a degree. But it isn't very difficult to outlaw crypto, and to effectively control its use for online anonymity - to get a workable anonymity infrastructure, you need common protocols, participants to create the mixnets and a certain amount of publicity to make your effort matter. It is extremely difficult to run such a usable setup without being detected by a determined TLA. Unlike with IP, porn, prostitution and drug trade, control of online activities can largely be automated. Sampo Syreeni, aka decoy, mailto:decoy@iki.fi, gsm: +358-50-5756111 student/math+cs/helsinki university, http://www.iki.fi/~decoy/front