From: peb@PROCASE.COM (Paul Baclace)
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 93 16:02:21 PDT
To: smb@research.att.com
Subject: Re: jrk@sys.uea.ac.uk (Richard Kennaway)
Message-ID: <9310182300.AA03078@banff.procase.com>
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I share many of these same concerns.  Ultimately, it's an arms race.

One thing is clear: the ways around restrictions lower bandwidth.
Examples: steganography and covert channels are low-bandwidth.  By 
analogy, successive transfers of small amounts of money gets around
the reporting to the "Benevolent Caretaker" is also a lowering of 
bandwidth.

However, it should be remembered that authorities attempted to outlaw
the printing press after its invention.  I'm not sure how long that
lasted, but since the Soviet Union kept tabs on all copiers, in some
sense, such repression lasted a long time.  (And in the U.S., it has
been said that color copiers are tracked, but this sounds like a bluff
to me since a color scanner+color printer is sufficient to duplicate
that capability.  Is it possible to buy a color copier anonymously?) 

Given this, it *is* possible that freedom of expression is going to 
win eventually.  Anonymous digital cash is more likely to be compromised
since, as you note, even the Swiss have been pressured into opening up 
their records of anonymous bank accounts.


Paul E. Baclace
peb@procase.com

P.S.: Prodigy is not yet profitable, last I heard.  

``Is that a real network or is that a Sears network?'' --Frank Zappa paraphased.