From: "E. ALLEN SMITH" <EALLENSMITH@ocelot.Rutgers.EDU>
Date: Wed, 28 Aug 1996 14:49:37 +0800
To: remailer-operators@c2.org
Subject: Nando.Net on Observer, Julf
Message-ID: <01I8SF5X601C9JDBTS@mbcl.rutgers.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


	Good luck. Overall a positive article, although I've noted one definite 
goof. I wonder if it would be possible to sue this FBI idiot as well as The
Observer?
	-Allen

>   Avis
>                    FINN REJECTS INTERNET CHILD PORN CLAIMS
   __________________________________________________________________________
>      Copyright &copy 1996 Nando.net
>      Copyright &copy 1996 Reuter Information Service
      
>   HELSINKI (Aug 26, 1996 10:53 a.m. EDT) - On the eve of a major
>   conference on child sex abuse, a Finnish Internet specialist on Monday
>   angrily dismissed allegations in a British newspaper that his system
>   handled up to 90 percent of child pornography on the Net.
   
[...]
   
>   The newspaper reported the charges, by a U.S. policeman and FBI
>   adviser, in the run-up to an international conference in Stockholm on
>   the commercial sexual exploitation of children starting on Tuesday.
   
>   Finnish police also said they had found no evidence in areas they can
>   investigate that Helsingius's system is now being used to forward
>   child pornography on a large scale.
   
>   "We are working very closely with the authorities and the child
>   protection agencies -- I am always encouraging people to report any
>   incidence of child pornography they see on the Internet to police, so
>   that they can investigate and act," Helsingius told Reuters by
>   telephone.
   
>   The Observer quoted Toby Tyler, a Federal Bureau of Investigation
>   adviser on child abuse and pornography, as saying 75-90 percent of the
>   child pornography he saw on the Internet was forwarded through
>   Helsingius' system.
   
>   Internet remailers are computers which receive and forward messages
>   with a pseudonym or anonymous source.
   
>   There are about five in the world, and they exist to enable anonymous
>   discussion of sensitive subjects -- for instance by victims of child
>   abuse, potential suicides or people in politically repressed
>   societies.

	Five? Someone's miscounted...
   
>   Helsingius said one key reason his system would not be used for
>   pornorgaphy was that it has built-in capacity limitations which make
>   it impossible to send large pictures through it -- only small amounts
>   of text.
   
>   "Also the groups where pictures are carried...are not supported in my
>   server," he said.
   
>   It could be possible to compress and chop up picture material for use
>   through the server but this would involve using "tens or hundreds of
>   separate messages," he said.
   
>   Kai Malmberg, a Helsinki police specialist in Internet affairs, said
>   he had in the past found child pornography remailed through the server
>   but it had stopped since police started investigating.
   
>   "I've found really no evidence of the Finnish remailer being used for
>   child pornography," he said. "But we can't -- we don't want to --
>   check people's mail. That would be like going into the post office and
>   opening all the letters.
   
>   "I believe that he's quite sincere in trying to protect his server for
>   people to discuss sensitive issues," he said.
   
>   Asked if his system could be used to carry child pornography through
>   individual e-mail messages, Helsingius said this was possible but not
>   on a large scale as it does not support e-mail systems which
>   simultaneously send to many recipients.
   
>   But he said it was possible for Internet experts to imitate his
>   remailer address to make it seem as if messages were coming through
>   his system.
   
>   "In a prevous case roughly a year ago we could find a couple of cases
>   of child porn," he said. "It was actually posted in the UK to the UK
>   -- it didn't come to Finland at all but it was being made to look like
>   it came from my server. Anyone can alter the origination information."
   
>   He said all the allegations about his remailer seemed to stem from
>   Tyler, yet he had been unable to contact him. Tyler was travelling to
>   the Stockholm conference on Monday and unavailable for comment.
   
>   "The fact that he's claiming 90 percent of the child porn goes through
>   my remailer is pretty far from the truth. There might be the
>   occasional instance and we are actively working against that,"
>   Helsingius said.
   
>   "My reputation has been tarnished all over Europe. We will take legal
>   action, but we are not quite sure in what country."
   
[...]

>    Copyright &copy 1996 Nando.net