At 3:20 PM 8/11/96, Perry E. Metzger wrote:

Timothy C. May writes:

...

Selling fake passports seems not to be something Vince ought to even be paying attention to. Granted, pressure from outside states may put pressure on Vince, but this actually confirms my worst (OK, _nearly_ my worst) suspicions about the viability of such data havens.

Vince has the right to run his business any way he likes.

Of course. I never said otherwise, so this is a straw man argument. Ditto for remailers, ISPs, bookstores, blah blah blah. But this does not mean people should say nothing about what they learn the practices to be.

In some jurisdictions, "Fake" passports are legal. In some, they are illegal. Vince feels that in his jurisdiction they are illegal. He has every right to decide who to allow to run off of his web servers -- even to be arbitrary about it.

Of course. I never said otherwise. Those of us who have commented are not challenging his legal right to do so, only remarking that if he cancels accounts without stronger legal evidence, or without making it clear what is acceptable and what is not, he risks losing reptuation capital. --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."