From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 1996 07:53:15 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Guilt by Association?
Message-ID: <ad2c816d06021004e749@[205.199.118.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 2:49 AM 1/25/96, Alan Olsen wrote:

>This is a problem with the web of trust in general.  It is known as "Guilt
>by Association".
>
>Person X commits treasonable act A.  All of the persons who are signed on to
>his key could be considered to be co-conspirators.  The same applies to
>nyms.  The difficulty with prosecuting nyms is finding the link to the real
>world individual.  Anyone associated with him/her/it will be considered to
>be guilty by reason of key signage or a way of determining who the real
>person is...
....
>I guess we are stuck with the "Web of Guilt"...

Although I disagree with many things the U.S. government has declared
unlawful, and think we are on the wrong track in many ways, I don't see any
evidence for a "web of guilt."

I could have signed the keys of Timothy McVeigh, O.J. Simpson, and Hilary
Clinton, and yet this would not cause any prosecutor to indict me, per se.
(Brian Davis, do you disagree?) Obviously if one of these persons I was
known to have associated with, to the point of signing their keys, were
under investigation, then some detectives might follow up some leads to
find out who I was. This is ordinary detective work, not guilt by
association.

Key-signing is overrated, in my view. It is just an affidavit from someone
that they think a person is related to a key. I've signed a few keys (not
many, and don't ask me to!), and I've never once asked for any form of
state-sanctioned ID.

--Tim May

Boycott espionage-enabled software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1  | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."