Eric Hughes remarks:
Even in the NYET proposal were implemented, it wouldn't accomplish it's own objectives. [...] international data services, [...] would provide an end run around any attempt at censorship.
Right, clearly, and I would add national underground links that would appear if such regulation was implemented. I'm always amazed when people think for even one second that effectually regulating an internet based on the existing protocols is possible. In particular, the existing internet has enough redundancy and activists to keep it going, legal hassles or not. Unfortunately, what is just as clearly (to me :-) possible, is an ATTEMPT at regulation, with its accompanying enforcement effort, no matter how ludicrous. With this would come the same waste in good will, money, lives, trust in the goverenment, and trust in fellow citizens that came from the previous attempts at regulating alcohol, drugs, taxes and intellectual property to cite only the most blatant examples. If legal and corporate bullies make it difficult to run key servers in the US, use the ones that run outside. Same for anonymous remailers. Same for erotic or pornographic picture servers. Same for erotic texts, the other way around from Canada or, say, Islamic countries: You can run these with little hassle in the US (although it's certainly not the best place to do so). The same thing for intellectual property laws: not all countries have the same copyright, patent or trademark laws. And if you are in France and want to run English language services, do it from the US, or England, or Finland, or Germany, or ... :-( And why would a networked bank stay in the US once the bugs are ironed out, or even before that for that matter? In fact, even US law enforcement people are reported to be doing that currently from the US, using foreign companies to collate data on US residents that they are forbidden from collating in the US (sorry, reference not handy). Recently, TV crews were shocked, simply shocked to discover that you could access from the US "disgusting pictures" stored on a Danish computer <shrug>. Unfortunately for the US subscribers to this list, as things stand, there are very few reasons to run any kind of internet businesses from the US, apart from current physical location of the principals. I predict many of the less employee-intensive ones will simply emigrate. I fully understand that it's easier to run the software from a local site, with physical oversight, but you should balance the legal hacking necessary with the programing hacking. Really, in many cases a foreign site in a country where the activity is legal would mean much fewer hassles, and added peace of mind (notwithstanding the ironically similar tendencies of Israel, certain Islamic states, and the US to want to prosecute foreigners for activities performed in foreign countries...) Give up on your reluctance with dealing with foreign countries, and don't give yourselves more headaches than necessary.
I have, in fact, considered putting up just such a service in Tiajuana, right across the border from San Diego. I might even be able to use radio or laser links to cross the border, and not even deal with international telecom arrangements. Someone wants a non-US web page? I could sell them one. They don't tell me their name, and I can't tell anyone else. If someone is offended, they get to sue in Mexican court.
I'd encourage people who are aware of foreigner-friendly and privacy- aware internet access systems, suitable for such legal or financial arbitraging to post pointers to this list. They are relevant because of the privacy aspects, the use for setting up key-servers, banks, reputation systems, and whatnots, and the cryptographic aspects of maintaining businesses through mostly remote access. (French, US permanent resident... aaAAAaarrRRRrrggGGgghhHHhhhh ;-) Pierre. pierre@shell.portal.com