The Java Anonymous Proxy (JAP) service, your local library, and you, among others need to develop a response should you be served with an order (court or otherwise) to produce information which includes the requirement that you keep the order secret. There are a large number of responses one could use. Some of them might be: * Cooperate. * Take the service down. * Publicly refuse to cooperate. * Publicly announce that you are being monitored. * Stop saying that the service is not monitored. * Appear to cooperate, but provide false information. * etc. Please keep in mind when reading the following analysis that I am not a lawyer. Cooperation seems to be the safest from a short term legal standpoint. However, to the extent it encourages the police state, it is dangerous in the long term. Taking the service down is an obvious response. It is a difficult response for your public library to implement. In addition, a strict enough secrecy order could require you to keep the service up. Publicly refusing to cooperate is the most honorable response, and will probably end you up in jail for an indefinite term on contempt charges. This is the path of civil disobedience, followed by a number of heros in past encounters with totalitarianism. Publicly announcing that you are being monitored will probably end up with the same contempt charges as a public refusal to cooperate, coupled with the possibility of the dishonorable act of breaking your word (depending on your terms of service). Stopping your notification that the service is not monitored can be forbidden by a strict enough secrecy order. It may be the least legally risky of the options. The fact that you will stop notification should be included in your terms of service. Providing false information is an interesting option, but I think you are legal toast if you are caught doing it. One can get a lot of amusement from considering who to implicate in place of the real anonymous user. Cheers - Bill ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Frantz | "A Jobless Recovery is | Periwinkle -- Consulting (408)356-8506 | like a Breadless Sand- | 16345 Englewood Ave. frantz@pwpconsult.com | wich." -- Steve Schear | Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA