From: jamesd@netcom.com (James A. Donald)
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 94 10:06:48 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Making Terminal Remailers Foreign
In-Reply-To: <199411202222.RAA12124@ducie.cs.umass.edu>
Message-ID: <199411211806.KAA05031@netcom8.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


L. McCarthy writes
> The trick is finding countries which are 
> a) fairly hostile to other countries, b) fairly permissive of free speech,
> privacy etc., and c) reasonably net-connected.  
> Most countries would seem to 
> fail at least one of these criteria w.r.t., say, the U.S.


Finland satisfies all these criteria with respect to the US, as
does New Zealand to a lesser extent.

In any case hostility is not really required.  Going through other
governments proper channels is as painful for governments as 
getting a building permit is for you or me.  The level of 
motivation that would lead the US government to go through some
other countries proper channels is roughly similar to the level
of motivation that would lead them to shoot someone and then claim
that the person shot was a child molester and NRA member 
resisting arrest.

Even Canada or Mexico would give quite good protection against USA
repression.   Unfortunately both countries are fairly hostile to 
free speech and might shut down the remailer for internal 
reasons.

But because the internet is world wide, all attempts to censor
it are doomed, and I think it unlikely that any government,
least of all the US, will even try.

The internet can closed down, but it cannot really be controlled.


-- 
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
We have the right to defend ourselves and our
property, because of the kind of animals that we        James A. Donald
are.  True law derives from this right, not from
the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state.            jamesd@acm.org