***** norm@netcom.com (Norman Hardy) *****

I can imagine a system administrator choosing to require that all mail originating from his machine include a signature that correctly identifies the local name of the sender.

I can too, but I suspect they wouldn't last long, particularly if they were commercial systems and their paying users felt that the anonymity option was something to be desired. I worry about institutional constraints much more, particularly at the national level "All machines on the Internet in this country will insure that mail originators are identified...", etc. Even this can be overcome technically though (smarter signature strippers).

This obviously does not include the entire population for at least the recipient is not sympathetic.

This isn't necessarily so. I can appreciate some other person's desire to remain anonymous in certain kinds of transactions. Also, people in other parts of the world seem much more sensitive to issues of privacy then we here in the US tend to be.

If society polarizes into camps then there may be remailers in each camp. A remailer in one camp is unlikely to service messages from the other.

Well maybe, but this goes against the philosophical, political, and technical grain of the International Internet as it now exists. I note that the world already *is* polarized into camps to a greater or lesser extent. If there is eventual political and social fallout from the use of alias remailers, I think it would be more of an us (the Internet community who use remailers) vs. them (everyone else) kind of thing. I have detected murmurs of dislike for people who use remailers just on general principles (i.e. you should take responsibility for what you say). matthew rapaport Philosopher/Programmer At Large KD6KVH mjr@netcom.com 70371.255@compuserve.com