From: Hal <hfinney@shell.portal.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 94 07:48:26 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Are Remailers Liable for What They Remail?
In-Reply-To: <199408110736.AAA27319@netcom10.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <199408111448.HAA17336@jobe.shell.portal.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May) writes:

>(Not even digital signatures have yet been tested.) Common carrier
>status--such as Federal Express has--has certainly not been granted to
>remailers. 

This is one of the things that worries me about the Digital Telephony bill.
In the various apologias and explanations from EFF, CyberWire Dispatch, etc.
about why EFF helped with this bill, it was mentioned that online service
providers have been removed from its coverage because they are not "common
carriers".  It only applies, they say, to common carriers like phone companies.

Obviously I haven't read the text of the bill (probably no one has ;-) but
this certainly raises the question of whether pursuing common carrier status
would cause electronic service providers to fall under the wiretap require-
ments of the bill.

Maybe I'll ask on usenet.

Hal