********* http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/opinion/0,1042,1594,00.html The Netly News (http://netlynews.com/) November 24, 1997 Anonymity At Any Cost by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com) When Lance Cottrell created an easy-to-use anonymous e-mail service back in 1994, he feared that nobody would use it. "I used to be worried that people didn't want anonymity enough to pay for it," he says. Today his company, Infonex, boasts 3,000 customers who pay $60 a year to browse the Web without leaving behind digital footprints. Which leaves Cottrell with new and more troubling worries. The mushrooming popularity of his Web-based "Anonymizer" (he also offers a slower, free version) has placed him at the heart of an explosive Internet debate over the limits of free speech and privacy online. Is Infonex - or Cottrell personally - responsible if a user breaks the law and can't be traced? Should the government restrict anonymous remailers or untraceable Web browsing? Last weekend Cottrell and I joined 40 lawyers, technologists and academics at a conference sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Our charge: to puzzle through some of the questions surrounding anonymous communication. [...]