From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Tue, 20 Feb 1996 16:25:38 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: should we use same nym on multiple servers?
Message-ID: <ad4eba2f0a0210047fe2@[205.199.118.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 6:45 AM 2/20/96, Anonymous wrote:
>  With the additional nym servers coming on the scene comes the
>question of whether or not to "claim" our alpha.c2 nym on the other
>ones, too.  E.g., if we are foobar@alpha.c2.org, should we also become
>foobar@nym.gondolin.org and foobar@nym.alias.net, too?

You know, shalmaneser@alpha.c2.org sent me a message demanding that he be
given the name shalmaser@black.net on my system, for exactly this reason.

I told him to fuck off.

Now he's threatening to sue me. Do you folks think this is right?

(More to the point, this example shows that whatever "anonymous" thinks
about "claims" on nyms, it's pointless. Even if _some_ nyms are apparently
persistent across nymservers, all it takes is the possibility of this not
to be so for the fiction to collapse. The best way to prove that
"shalmaneser@alpha.c2.org" is really the same True Name (or in alliance
with) as "foobar@black.net" is to show that either can read the messages
encrypted to the other.)


--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."