For your edification: I run a remailer. Someone used it to post copyrighted material. I was contacted to help resolve the issue. The person who contacted me, Brad Templeton, was neither abusive nor unreasonable, but he did express some interesting attitudes. I am reposting the dialogue here. My added comments begin with '#'. I must emphasize that I sympathize with Mr. Templeton and bear him no ill will. I am interested in his views---and your reaction to his views---of remailers, their legality, and future. ##### Brad Templeton wrote: ##### Somebody posted an AP Wire story to comp.org.eff.talk using your remailer. We'll need to know who it was or have you contact them so we can get them to make amends for the copyright violation. Thanks. ##### I responded:: ##### Brad, # I included his initial message here This is distressing to me. I don't run a remailer to abet infringers of copy (or other) rights. I certainly do not condone this action. Unfortunately, there is little I can do after the fact. My remailer is not the sort that requires a priori relationships. If a message has the right sort of header, the remailer sends it on its way ... no questions asked. I never see any mail that passes through my remailer. I keep no logs, the efficacy of which would be compromised in any case by remailer chaining or encryption. I can block remailing to or from any particular address, but my remailer is incapable of taking action based on content. I am sorry that I can neither tell you who it was, nor contact them ... not because I don't wish to, but because I am unable to. I will happily assist you in any way that I am able. What follows is my public policy with respect to the remailer. It details my capabilities and attitude. # I included my remailer policy here, which most of you have seen. # E-mail me privately for copies. I hope this is of some assistance to you. ##### Brad Templeton wrote:: ##### I understand your policy, and I suspect that down the road that while anon remailers will continue to exist and serve a purpose, those that allow people to break laws behind them (defamation and copyright, and possibly kiddie-porn in particular) will have to shut down. The law is clear on this. If a newspaper publishes libel, the newspaper is liable with the writer, and fully liable if they hide the writer's name. You'll be in that boat, and shutting down or logging after the fact won't do you much good. I think the right answer is a remailer that logs, allows replies (like the finet one) and which opens up in the case of illegal postings, or any other postings that don't follow its rules. It might say that it demands a warrant, for example. What you're doing is of little value. Anybody can post anon to USENET anyway, if they don't care about replies. I am surprised you would take the risk to add no functionality. ##### I responded: ##### Brad, My immediate advice to you is to send mail to the same distribution that the illegal material followed, requesting contact from the sender. This would have the same enforcability of reply as Julf's remailer. People rarely mail things to lists they don't themselves read, so it is likely to be read by the intended. As I said before, I will help you in any way that I can. I understand that, lacking a perpetrator, I am the next visible target for your ire ... so I am taking your comments as predictions about society (as I'm sure you intended) rather than personal comments (as so many people are wont to read into e-mail these days). # I included his first two paragraphs here. My remailer is not a newspaper; rather it resembles the post-office, a phone switch, or the hole in the tree trunk in "To Kill a Mockingbird". All of these allow communication with some amount of anonymity selected by the sender (up to and including `no return address`). Newspapers have editors. There is a presumption of knowledge over their content. _Of course_ one sues such a publication for libel or error---they have advertised their control over their publication so that readers may trust in its verity and appropriateness. One _must_ sue when such a trusted publication causes damages. Angry people can 'cement over the hole', but it won't be because my remailer broke either faith or law.
I think the right answer is a remailer that logs,
Any phrase that starts with 'the right answer is' is questionable. If there were a 'right answer' for communication we would only need one of: newspapers, phones, tv's, postcards, conversations in the hall, pounding a broom handle on the ceiling, short-wave radio, ad infinitum. The right media depends on the situation and the people involved.
allows replies (like the finet one)
My remailer allows replies; the sender need only include a return address (possibly encrypted) exactly like the US Post Office. My service is completely different from the finet one. Julf's system requires its own machine and huge space resources for mapping tables. Such a system is beyond my resources.
and which opens up in the case of illegal postings, or any other postings that don't follow its rules.
My service conforms to this statement. I was---and am now---happy to help you resolve this issue to the best of my ability. I won't support, condone, or abet illegal activity; however, I can't and won't spy on law abiding users on the slim chance that I could detect illegal activity a priori. I will enact restrictions that prevent illegal activity whenever I can do so without impacting citizens (e.g., I can block addresses, etc.).
What you're doing is of little value.
It is unfortunate that your only contact with my remailer was of little (in fact negative) value to you. In in another situation you---as other people certainly do---might value it highly.
Anybody can post anon to USENET anyway, if they don't care about replies.
My remailer makes no provisions for posting to usenet. It is simply a remailer; it can do nothing that sendmail cannot do.
I am surprised you would take the risk to add no functionality.
One if by land; two if by the information super-highway. We're all together in this, ##### Brad Templeton wrote: ##### I thought it was for netnews, that is what I saw. Actually, anybody can do anon E-mail as well, but fewer know how. You are not a newspaper, but I truly believe you are taking on all the liability for bad things in the material remailed. ##### The End? ##### Scott Collins | "That's not fair!" -- Sarah | "You say that so often. I wonder what your basis 408.862.0540 | for comparison is." -- Goblin King ................|.................................................... BUSINESS. fax:974.6094 R254(IL5-2N) collins@newton.apple.com Apple Computer, Inc. 5 Infinite Loop, MS 305-2D Cupertino, CA 95014 ..................................................................... PERSONAL. 408.257.1746 1024:669687 catalyst@netcom.com