Timothy C. May writes:
At 11:12 AM 3/11/96, Gary Howland wrote:
Dan Weinstein writes:
If I rent cars, someone might one day use a car rented from me in a robbery. Does that make my an accessary? NO.
This is an unfair analogy. Now if you had said that you rented cars without asking for proof of identification, thus making your car hire centre very useful to robbers, that may more closely resemble the anon-remailer situation.
If a hotel rents a room to someone who commits a crime in that room, e.g., prostitution, drug use, plotting to blow up a building, can the hotel be seized under the asset forfeiture laws?
I didn't initially use the the car-hire analogy, I was just trying to bring it more into line with the anon-remailer situation. Perhaps a better example would be an agency set up for the sole purpose of hiring cars on behalf of anonymous customers - as long as the customers didn't abuse the anonymous facility too much, then I guess they would be allowed to carry on operating, much like the remailers operate at present. However, I guess they're in for trouble when their service starts being abused at the expense of big brother, and I guess their policy of shredding all evidence at weekends won't help matters either.
If I let someone use my telephone without confirming his identity, am I liable for crimes committed with this phone?
This last example is, I submit, a nearly perfect parallel to anonymous remailers. And not because the telephone system is a "common carrier," but because of scienter: I have no knowledge, and cannot be expected to have knowledge, of crimes committed with my phone.
But this doesn't match the remailer scenario - this example is better likened to me letting you use my email account whilst at my house.
And, finally, packages and letters may be mailed anonymously. This is what pre-paid stamps are all about. And I've used non-U.S. Postal Service package delivery sytems without providing identification. Can Federal Express have their assets seized because of "anonymous remailing"? (Quibblers will no doubt cite laws requiring FedEx to "cooperate," demand ID, etc.)
Yes, but when was the last time someone physically mailed copyright source code (eg RC2) to half the world? When was the last time a pair of lawyers made worldwide news due to making a phone call? Again, the anon-postal-mail/anon-telephone-call analogy doesn't work. Gary -- pub 1024/C001D00D 1996/01/22 Gary Howland <gary@kampai.euronet.nl> Key fingerprint = 0C FB 60 61 4D 3B 24 7D 1C 89 1D BE 1F EE 09 06