At 8:07 am 5/24/94 -0700, Sandy Sandfort wrote:
How about this, instead: A company called "ID Anonymous, Ltd." sets up in a business secrecy jurisdiction. It buys Internet access accounts in bulk from DGS, Netcom, etc. (ID1, ID2, ID3, . . .). It then resells them to people living in the service territories of the various access providers.
If I were in law enforcement, and I were faced with the problem of getting a truename for an account like this, I'd trace back the contact with the access provider. No need to try to serve an overseas subpoena; the user has to access the system somehow. If FBI's Big Brother Bill goes through, I can probably do this in fifteen minutes. There may also be problems in trying to buy blocks of anonymous accounts, since the access provider will take the heat for anything coming out of the account. If Netcom is willing to drop Cashier and Scumball, they may not be happy about this whole plan. Eli ebrandt@hmc.edu