From: Charlie Comsec <comsec@nym.alias.net>
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 00:50:28 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: UCENET II and Peter duh Silva
In-Reply-To: <668vgi$bpo@news1.panix.com>
Message-ID: <19971216164008.11359.qmail@nym.alias.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



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politas@dynamite.com.au (Politas) wrote:

> Surely that isn't the important thing.  More important is that the
> person really has an email address of "john_smith@hotmail.com".  Then
> it's up to Hotmail to be able to trace that email address back to the
> previous step, assuming that they are being forced to do so by a
> warrant or some other legal reason.
>  
> Personally, I think that all messages should be able to be traced to a
> real person, although this tracing should not be possible without
> legal action.
 
Are you saying that Hotmail should be made a guarantor of the identity of
its accountholders, or merely that they could be required, under certain
circumstances, to divulge what information (if any) it possesses, regardless 
of its accuracy?  AFAIK, the latter case is currently operative, since
Hotmail's records are presumably already subject to subpoena (in the USA,
at least -- I just realized you're posting from an Aussie domain).

IOW, when you sign up for a hotmail.com account, you're presumably required
to give them a "name".  If I signed up as "John Smith", should they be
required to verify that I'm really John Smith, or merely disclose that the
account belongs to someone who identified him/herself as "John Smith"?

If you're saying what I hope you're NOT saying, it would amount to a form
of "identity escrow", and I suspect that Hotmail would probably choose to
discontinue offering free e-mail accounts rather than take on that sort of
responsibility.

- ---
Finger <comsec@nym.alias.net> for PGP public key (Key ID=19BE8B0D)

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