CDR: Re: Anonymous Remailers cpunk

[Bartley R. Troyan]

Jim Choate wrote:
> 
> On 17 Oct 2000, Anonymous wrote:
> 
> > Pipe the message into GPG and test the output on STDERR.
> >
> > There was some perl code posted to the list not too long ago which does this.
> 
> So, now everyone has to use GPG. Why? How do you propose to answer the
> increased attacks on the protocol now that you've made it the monopoly?

No one is saying you have to use GPG.  The source code is freely available.  Anyone can take the algorithm it uses to analyze its input, and outputs whatever it outputs on STDERR when a non-encrypted message is detected, and incorporate it into their own software.  You can make it better, or different, or do whatever you feel like doing with it.

If some people decide to run remailers that only propagate email that looks encrypted based on GPG's algorithm for detecting encryption, more power to them.  If you don't want to use these remailers, you don't have to.

> I thought the point of anonymous remailers and commen crypto was to
> enhance liberty rather than enforce (coerce) another standard.

Yes, enhancing liberty is one useful reason to run or use a remailer.  If you don't like the ones that require incoming traffic to be encrypted, don't use them.  Run your own.  You'll get more spam complaints from end-recipients, but that's your problem.  Or use somebody else's.  There's no shortage of unrestricted remailers out there.

-Bart



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