-- On 5 Aug 2001, at 16:07, Sampo Syreeni wrote:

AFAICS, it's likely a matter of priorities -- currently anonymity does not pose a significant threat to governments. If that changes, the heat will intensify, possibly to a point where means currently unimaginable could be employed (e.g. national firewalls, regulation of nonconduct, creative interpretation of laws on criminal collaboration, RICO, whathaveyou).

The great firewall of China is somewhat effective, but by no means as effective as the chinese government would wish. The Russian equivalent is dead in the water. We do not have magic armor, but, governments do not have magic bullets either. To effectively repress, a government must be lawless. But a lawless government risks either disintegrating, as in post 1990 Russia, or succumbing to a cult of personality, as in the 1930s russia. A bunch of very old men currently keep china wobbling between these two extremes. When they drop dead, it will wobble one way or the other. Since the cult of personality has proved so deadly to government officials everywhere, they will probably choose the safer course of wobbling in the direction of disintegration. --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG wew6MK1X7o6m4yRVDWkDvm7xAIqUnFwOPMyVMxMN 4ljKTpl8pf+CmhVEGgTUk33zfdnbgqg7Qs9heEWDz