[roy at rant-central.com: Re: [arma at mit.edu: Re: Wikipedia & Tor]]

[Nick Mathewson]

Hi again, Jimmy!

On Wed, Sep 28, 2005 at 06:57:37AM -0400, Jimmy Wales wrote:
 [...]
> I said no such thing.  Tor servers exist for the sole purpose of aiding
> people who have a genuine need for privacy.  Tor operators by and large
> are unhappy that Tor users can't edit Wikipedia, and are genuinely
> interested in exploring solutions, especially solutions which involve
> changes or enhancements to the Tor architecture which help solve the
> problem not just for Wikipedia but for _all_ internet services which
> desire to carefully balance a desire for privacy and openness against
abuse.

I think I've identified one of the reasons some people here are disturbed
about your suggestions.  When you talk about changing the Tor
architecture, they think you mean changes to Tor that would require
all users to have pseudonyms, or ostracize the users who didn't.  When
you say "Tor should do X," they think you mean "the Tor software
should do X".{1}

If that were what you meant, they would be right to be concerned.
Pseudonymity is wrong for many users.  Complicating the core Tor
implementation would be bad.

But these aren't your goals, if I understand correctly.  Wikipedia
doesn't ultimately care how Tor is implemented, or what it contains,
so long as it is significantly less effective as a tool for Wikipedia
abuse.  Yes?

This could be achieved, as some people fear, through modifying the
core of Tor.  But that isn't the only way to change matters.  As
discussed, introducing a separate pseudonymous authentication service
(perhaps even an anonymous credential service, if we can find a way to
do this without patent infringement) would serve just as well, and
require no modifications to the Tor code.  Users who didn't want to
use such a service would be no worse off than they are today.  Users
who wanted to use Tor and edit Wikipedia at the same time could decide
whether the implications of such a service were acceptable to them.

{1} To be clear, I think that it's more accurate to talk about changes
    to the User/Tor/Wikipedia interaction, and to suggest a need for
    action by the Tor project and its supporters, than to talk about a
    need for changes in Tor's architecture, and a need for action by
    Tor.

yrs,
--
Nick Mathewson



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