On Wed, 13 Dec 1995, Bill Stewart wrote:
<andrew_loewenstern@il.us.swissbank.com> wrote:
I believe C2.org already offers non-dialup access accounts, paid for with ECash, that do not require a valid snail-address or phone-number. I am sure that there will be many more to come.
I suspect Sameer would be happy to open an account paid in advance in small unmarked bills. AOL probably wouldn't.
AOL will, however, accept a bogus name, address, and credit card number (as long as the checksum is correct) for the initial ten free hours plus however long it takes for the first bill to bounce. America "On Line" will also accept direct debits from an untraceable bank account (for this they charge a little extra). This is not to say that I have tried any of this (though I have), nor is it to say that anything on AOL is worth your time anyway.
Fortunately, the government hasn't really caught on to the importance of email, so they aren't requiring that email providers know where you really live. I predict 1997 for that.
This promises to be an interesting legal fight. -rich