Jim Miller said:

I often see threads debating whether the courts have the right to compel you to reveal your encryption key. Some say yes, some say no.

Under the assumption that courts *do* have the right (or power) to force you to reveal your key, the problem now becomes:

How can you prevent the government from proving you have encrypted documents?

One Answer: Don't keep encrypted documents in your possession.

Somebody could create a Document Server to store encrypted documents. Users would somehow get an anonymous Document Server account number when they subscribe to the service. Users would use the remailer system to send encrypted documents to the Document Server. The account numbers would be used to organize the document database and for billing (the tricky part).

Given a Document Server, the problem now becomes: How can you prevent the government from proving you use a Document Server. This seems like a strictly technical problem, unlike the "can they compel you to reveal your key" problem.

Jim_Miller@suite.com

I'd donate a used 40MB or so drive for a purpose such as this. You could then allocate 30MB to the account, and use the other 10MB as the fee for a year or whatever. It should be workable. And anonymous.