ANON: pseudospoofing confusion
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Does the ECPA (the law regulating communications privacy) or the copyright laws apply to material that was written under a *pseudonymous* identity? I would consider this a grey area. A court
Well, there may be some legal precedent to look up: some of the greatest works of literature were published under "pseudonymous" identities. Lewis Carroll, George Orwell, Mark Twain, George Eliot: none of these people ever existed. In fact, Mary Ann Evans published under "George Eliot" in order to pretend to be male; I guess you could call her master pseudospoofer, since she specifically created a fake identity in order to fool others. I suppose "Publius" doesn't qualify as a pseudospoofer since the three gentlemen who were responsible for the _Federalist Papers_ were probably just trying to hide their identity (at first) and not go about creating new ones. I'm sort of fuzzy on the distinction between pseudonymous and pseudoanonymous; is it that a pseudonym is obviously so? For example, an id on anon.penet.fi is obviously a pseudonym, so if I were to use it, I would be pseudonymous. In a sense, every mail address you see here is a pseudonym. Now, pseudoanonymous is when a fake identity is created, without it being obviously so. (Right?) So if I were to obtain another account with a different user name, etc. and use that account, I would be pseudospoofing. (?) But the difference between these two seems so slight, a semantic one rather than practical. For example, suppose several people were in communication with someone they had never met. One person (of the several) is curious as to the identity of the mystery person, and tries to find out information about this person. Very little is turned up. So little, it could be that the mystery person is "pseudoanonymous", a fake identity. Are the several people being pseudospoofed? How can they tell one way or the other without actually meeting the mystery person? If they can't tell, then what difference does it make? -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLOcsTYOA7OpLWtYzAQFKzAQAyx5MNNNyjs/BeJLLqM0EX5A0ZQADCLge fNkndrgT/nSWiVGubE58girFQdNZlI5a50swKeKOqEHo8zxdqYSEIw8mrAm8iXeB mH5uOi2KHpxuWHQ+nkgmEi+KKkFNI6PQH7jR0euVPgu+GZsj40V52mJ9Z9ZYP/EV GvE6VvFkux8= =CA2o -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
I'm sort of fuzzy on the distinction between pseudonymous and pseudoanonymous; is it that a pseudonym is obviously so? For example, [...] Now, pseudoanonymous is when a fake identity is created, without it being obviously so. (Right?) So if I were to obtain another account with a different user name, etc. and use that account, I would be pseudospoofing. (?)
I have pointed this out numerous times to L.D. in private mail, but he doesn't seem to get the fact that "obvious" is completely subjective. The most recent example I gave was that "James Bond" would appear to be an obvious pseudo. Unless your name really IS James Bond (which is actually not that rare of a name), or you happen to be someone that's never seen a J.B. movie, or read an Ian Fleming book, such as, say, a guy from Norway or Japan, in which case it would be quite reasonable to presume that the person you just got mail from really is named James Bond. Detweiler's entire proposition hinges on this distinction between pseudonymy and "pseudoanonymity"/"pseudospoofing". The distinction does not actually clearly exist, and his premise (or I should say "its" premise, since Detweiler has lately claimed to be female) collapses. I have attempted to get this to sink in to it's head, but to no avail; it just keeps posting and mailing away. What can ya do? I for one may just add someone to my kill file for the first time ever, as I'm sick to death of the same 200 line rant, rearranged and given a new title, popping up in my list mail, private mail, and news several times a day. Detweiler is not really in a position to complain about letterbombing. Aside from that, I recommend just ignoring it until unless it posts something of relevance and interest. -- Stanton McCandlish mech@eff.org 1:109/1103 EFF Online Activist & SysOp O P E N P L A T F O R M C R Y P T O P O L I C Y O N L I N E R I G H T S N E T W O R K I N G V I R T U A L C U L T U R E I N F O : M E M B E R S H I P @ E F F . O R G
participants (2)
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Karl Lui Barrus -
Stanton McCandlish