From: analyst@netcom.com (Benjamin McLemore)
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 94 13:45:21 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Detweiler blocking
Message-ID: <199402162141.NAA00160@mail.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


I must admit to a certain amount of amazement to the almost universal
consensus I have seen in this forum regarding censoring Detweiler's (or
whomever's) Usenet postings. I believe in the remailer concept and I
believe in fighting the authoritarian traceability standard that the
Internet is designed around. As Xenon and others have mentioned, there
are numerous ways for anyone to get around any kind of source-level
filtering you might care to implement, and thus as remailer operators
heading down this path, you will be put in the position of the
proverbial dutch boy with a finger in the dike.

The type of privacy that most of us as cypherpunks think is important
and are trying to provide will necessarily leave us open to attacks
such as Detweiler's. But I think privacy is more important than one
more off-topic post in a random newsgroup. And if someone receives
mail they don't like or don't appreciate--delete it! This medium of
electronic communication is not nearly as dangerous as the current
postal system, which allows you to send real mailbombs--and the postal
system does NOT require return addresses. Who are these uptight
schmucks writing to root and postmaster about Detweiler posts? Why on
earth have they been allowed to get away with it! This is ridiculous.

I think this is the battle that we must fight. The digital convergence
is happening now, and unfortunately with the current authoritarian
Internet model, Clipper/Capstone/Tesserae and all that
nonsense--things arent't looking good for our side. Therefore, I think
even more we have to stand on principle to fight this thing. (and yes,
I fully intend to have my remailer running soon--I'm not just talking).

Someone could send me mail now containing kiddy porn (most likely a
postal inspector--they seem to be the only markey for the stuff) with
no return address--should I write to the root@whitehouse.org as the
ultimate arbiter since the postal service has delivered me this mail?
If someone delivers mail through my remailer (which will ONLY support
PGP encrypted mail) how am I responsible? 

Benjamin
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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