From: hedges@infonex.com
Date: Fri, 4 Jul 1997 06:46:04 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Jeff's Side of the Story.
In-Reply-To: <5pbnoe$f29$1@re.hotwired.com>
Message-ID: <199707032233.PAA05206@rigel.cyberpass.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Jeff wrote at some unknown date and time:
> The right to anonymity in the US will be legislated away within 18 months, 
> partially because of spam.  I do hope there's a _good_ test case waiting,
> and someone willing to fight it to the end, but I have my doubts.  Ultimately
> the remailer network will be forced to move offshore, the way Crypto 
> development currently has.

I'm not sure this is true, Jeff. As we saw with the CDA, what the
legislature and executives may do under the gun of popular opinion
and funding pressure is not always constitutional. There are
precedents for anonymity, from the time when the Federalist Papers
were published anonymously to now. If you like examine Talley v.
California and McIntyre v. Ohio Campaign Commission, both cases
in which the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the right
to anonymity. As you may know an injunction was issued against the
Georgia (U.S.) State against their anti-anonymity law.

I neglected to post the URL's in the newsgroups: www.epic.org/free_speech/.

>From the legal precedents it does not appear the right to anonymity
is in any immediate jeopardy, though fire-consumed politicians may
push bill after bill into the courts to push personal culpability
for transmission of information. Eventually, with enough case precedent
blocking them every time, legislature will learn that it is futile
to pass an anti-anonymity law, regardless of whether the individual
legislators think it is right or wrong.

The real danger is what you encountered---self styled vigilante
enforcers of narrow-minded selfish pride---people who just can't
stand to be told that they're losers, whether they are or not.
Public defamation using anonymity is an interesting issue, and
one I'm not prepared to take a stand on. Does anyone have commentary?

Mark Hedges
"First you learn you can only know nothing,
 then you learn that everything is just a good idea."