Responding to orders which include a secrecy requirement

[Bill Frantz]

The Java Anonymous Proxy (JAP) service, your local library, and you, among
others need to develop a response should you be served with an order (court
or otherwise) to produce information which includes the requirement that
you keep the order secret.

There are a large number of responses one could use.  Some of them might be:

* Cooperate.

* Take the service down.

* Publicly refuse to cooperate.

* Publicly announce that you are being monitored.

* Stop saying that the service is not monitored.

* Appear to cooperate, but provide false information.

* etc.


Please keep in mind when reading the following analysis that I am not a lawyer.

Cooperation seems to be the safest from a short term legal standpoint.
However, to the extent it encourages the police state, it is dangerous in
the long term.

Taking the service down is an obvious response.  It is a difficult response
for your public library to implement.  In addition, a strict enough secrecy
order could require you to keep the service up.

Publicly refusing to cooperate is the most honorable response, and will
probably end you up in jail for an indefinite term on contempt charges.
This is the path of civil disobedience, followed by a number of heros in
past encounters with totalitarianism.

Publicly announcing that you are being monitored will probably end up with
the same contempt charges as a public refusal to cooperate, coupled with
the possibility of the dishonorable act of breaking your word (depending on
your terms of service).

Stopping your notification that the service is not monitored can be
forbidden by a strict enough secrecy order.  It may be the least legally
risky of the options.  The fact that you will stop notification should be
included in your terms of service.

Providing false information is an interesting option, but I think you are
legal toast if you are caught doing it.  One can get a lot of amusement
from considering who to implicate in place of the real anonymous user.

Cheers - Bill


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