From: Ben Holiday <ncognito@gate.net>
To: remailer-operators@c2.org
Message Hash: 65f3c355400fc9f5bf953541454586c00d5272a86b87790aa5d345ad9509fcc7
Message ID: <Pine.A32.3.91.951119225404.61842A-100000@hopi.gate.net>
Reply To: <199511200127.AA17430@ideath.goldenbear.com>
UTC Datetime: 1995-11-20 16:06:33 UTC
Raw Date: Tue, 21 Nov 1995 00:06:33 +0800
From: Ben Holiday <ncognito@gate.net>
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 1995 00:06:33 +0800
To: remailer-operators@c2.org
Subject: Re: remailer abuse
In-Reply-To: <199511200127.AA17430@ideath.goldenbear.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.A32.3.91.951119225404.61842A-100000@hopi.gate.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
On Sun, 19 Nov 1995, Greg Broiles wrote:
> I think adopting a submissive or apologetic stance with respect to the
> operation of a remailer is a mistake. What we do is protected by the First
> amendment, supports a 200+ year tradition of anonymous political speech in
> America, provides a valuable service to a worldwide community, and can help
> avoid the very abuse they are accused of facilitating. The child who was the
[extremely lucid comments clipped to save bandwidth]
Agreed, wholeheartedly. The above paragraph would be a perfect candidate
for wide disemination across the net.
The facts are that to eliminate the "abusive" mail would require
crippling the remailer system to an unacceptable degree. Therefore we as
operators are in a position of being forced to either tolerate messages
that we may disagree (strongly) with, shut down the remailers, or resort
to inadequate 40bit encryption and psuedo-anonymous Penti.fi remailing.
(no offense to Julf intended..)
I see nothing submissive or apologetic about pointing this fact out in a
focused and organised way. In fact, making this fact plain might actually
limit the number of people using the remailers to harrass other users. If
general oppinion is that remailer operators accept and condone /all/
forms of communication, without regard for it potential effects, why
shouldnt the spammer take advantage of our generosity?
Certainly being PC should not be the primary consideration in any
undertaking, but the united states (and other nations) have well paid and
well organised spin doctors working to convince the public that
cryptographers and remail operators are "bad" people who's only purpose
is to aid pedophiles and other criminals in carrying out their dastardly
deeds. Ignoring the political implications of operating a remailer is
simply foolish. Public oppinion is going to be an important consideration
when the laws come to the table. Sure, we could move the remailers off
shore, but why do that unless we have to? The idea of being a
"cryptorebel", or an underground warrior for peace and privacy is
certainly romantic, but i'd like to think that it doesnt have to be that way.
Then again, i didnt need propaganda to convince me that I needed privacy.
Maybe im just strange..
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