From: "Robert J. Woodhead" <trebor@foretune.co.jp>
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 93 19:20:51 PDT
To: "L. Detweiler" <ld231782@longs.lance.colostate.edu>
Subject: Re: the Joy of Pseudospoofing
In-Reply-To: <9310250728.AA09485@longs.lance.colostate.edu>
Message-ID: <9310260214.AA06763@dink.foretune.co.jp>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


"Jim Riverman" writes about the possibilities of abuse by pseudospoofing.

I agree with him that this is an area of great potential concern.  While
I am not opposed to the principle of maintaining multiple identities on
the net, the rule of netiquette should be that "multiple identities should
_NEVER_ intersect."

So I support "L. Detweiler"s right to be "Jim," but they ought never to
support each other.  His scenario is chillingly _possible_.

At the same time, I think such episodes will be rare.  The amount of
effort needed to maintain multiple intersecting identities is quite high,
and in most cases would be "uneconomic."  However, in some cases, for
some people, the effort might be worth it, so some thought ought to
be placed into ways to detect or discourage it.

Which brings up the question: how can we, in the era of digital pseudonyms
determine that two pseudos are, or are not, the same person?  One possible
method would be careful automated analysis of the language used by
the participants in a net discussion.  As I recall, there are studies
that show that people have deep patterns in their writing that can
be detected even when they are trying to hide them.  Literary finger-
prints, if you will.

This may be an area that "Jim" ought to research.  Such an automated
monitor might be a positive contribution.