From: Johan Helsingius <julf@penet.FI>
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 93 11:14:07 PST
To: Hal Finney <hal@alumni.cco.caltech.edu>
Subject: Re: Remailer abuse?
In-Reply-To: <9301291807.AA08440@alumni.cco.caltech.edu>
Message-ID: <9301292044.aa10755@penet.penet.FI>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



> When the Pax remailer was shut down, I stopped keeping any logs of my
> remailer operation.  I felt that I did not want to provide information
> that would be helpful to those forces which oppose information privacy.

> Is someone using my remailer to send trash to innocent young girls?
> I am uncomfortable to be facilitating this kind of activity.  Can anyone
> offer suggestions for the ethical thing to do in this situation?

Well, you can't have your cake and eat it. I do know the dilemma you are
facing, as I have to face the issue pretty regularily. Either you just
provide the service without any regard for the contents, or keep logs
and play police every now and then. With anon.penet.fi the choice is
simple because the way the server works - there has to be a database
mapping anon id's to real addresses, and anyway it is possible to flame
orginators of abusive stuff without even knowing their true identity.

But in the general case it is a pretty complicated ethical issue...

	Julf