From: "E. ALLEN SMITH" <EALLENSMITH@ocelot.Rutgers.EDU>
Date: Thu, 23 May 1996 20:09:52 +0800
To: minow@apple.com
Subject: Re: An alternative to remailer shutdowns
Message-ID: <01I5156RK8ZI8Y4XHY@mbcl.rutgers.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


From:	IN%"minow@apple.com" 23-MAY-1996 01:57:15.69

>-- The remailer operator is legally enjoined from reading messages
>   transversing his system. (For example, the remailer is subject to
>   data privacy laws.)

	I suspect that it is rather unlikely that the court would find a
remailer operator covered by those laws.

>-- The message was encrypted using the intended recipient's public key.
>   (This means that, without access to the private key, the operator
>   has no mechanism to examine the e-mail.)

	This is related to the old ISP liability question, although amplified
by being not only a practical impossibility to filter but close to a physical
impossibility also. (Please note the "close" part.) I am not sure if a judge
could find any grounds to slap a remailer operator with contempt of court in
such a case, but if it were so, Uni has pointed out that it's rather difficult
to override a judge in such a matter, even based on plain facts.
	-Allen