On Sun, 9 Jun 1996, Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM wrote:
I note that you chose to ignore the cypherpunks-relevant portion of my question - that the anti-scientologists have been abusing the cypherpunks remailers.
I have to agree with the KOTM on this one, as did many of the ars posters (after a few days of flames subsided). IMO, with the remailer network weak, and with the posters KNOWING that the remailers were weak (someone posted ATTACKS ON REMAILERS IMMINENT!!! before the NOTS postings), they should have used throwaway accounts or some other method of posting, like throwaway AOL accounts. Fortunately, the damage was localized. For routine criticism of the cult, absolutely yes, please use the remailers, but for blatant "copyright terrorism," be careful. As I believe they will... we're really not in disagreement here. Only the kooks on either side are trying to make this controversial. I certainly don't think anyone should hold any sort of grudge against the arsvolk (i.e., I don't hate myself for posting Scamizdat 11 a few times to ars and my web page, under my own name). I think everyone but CoS and the KOTM have learned something from this experience, and we'll be better equipped to deal with the next challenge. We all know we COULD stress the remailer network, probably to the breaking point, by sending the right messages to the right people. But we don't, because we're responsible (sorry, I don't think that's a dirty word). Use the right tool for the job. -rich