WorldNet User <anonymous-user@worldnet.att.net> writes:
From the "AT&T WorldNet Service Operating Policies": (i) Members may not post or transmit any message anonymously or under a false name. Members may not permit any other person (other than an agent acting on Member's behalf and subject to Member's supervision) to access the Service Member's account for any purpose.
(I can't get through to http://www.worldnet.att.net this morning. Makes me appreciate that dial tone I get every day.) Is the WorldNet service an Internet access account, providing dial-in SLIP or PPP access? Or does it also provide user accounts like shell accounts or like AOL? The wording of this restriction is a bit ambiguous. Technically if I choose to resend someone else's mail I am not transmitting it anonymously or under a false name, especially if I make clear what I have done. He is anonymous, not I. Rather, if I want to post a message anonymously I must access an anonymous remailer to do so; if I want to post under a false name I must hack my message headers or connect to someone else's news or mail server and supply false data. Doing the latter is something of a violation of the Internet rules, such as they are, so I could see forbidding it, but forbidding use of an anonymous remailer on someone else's system seems unreasonable. AT&T should not try to control what Internet services I access. If I run an anonymous remailer on my home PC, connecting to WorldNet to download the mail, decrypt it, scramble it, and re-send it under my name but with a disclaimer attached telling what I have done, I have not posted or transmitted anything anonymously or under a false name. The source of the material I choose to transmit, as long as it is legal, is not something under AT&T's control. Hal