Excerpts from internet.cypherpunks: 15-May-96 Re: SEVERE undercapacity, .. by Hal@shell.portal.com
After all, what is the purpose of anonymous remailers? It isn't really to allow harrassing and abusive messages to be sent to one's enemies. And it isn't to defeat intellectual property laws by proving that no one can stop this material from being posted (remailers can't succeed in doing this, as I said above). Rather, I view remailers as a natural extension of encryption.
Has anyone considered how the online copyright legislation being considered in the House and the Senate may affect anonymous remailers? There are some interesting provisions, such as requiring the provider of a service or a network to take steps including "removing, disabling, or blocking access to the material claimed to be infringing." Also, each ISP would have to register an agent with the U.S. Copyright Office to accept service, etc. By my reading, anonymous remailers don't follow into the "local exchange, trunk line, or backbone" provisions of the law. The legislation likely will move through Congress largely intact -- at least that's the reading I got from the House judiciary subcommittee today. -Declan