From: Toto <toto@sk.sympatico.ca>
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1998 02:59:11 +0800
To: Privacy Admin <woz@privacynb.ml.org>
Subject: Re: Forwarding remailer-ops posts
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980116095506.26249E-100000@privacynb.ml.org>
Message-ID: <34BFA4FD.67FC@sk.sympatico.ca>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



XXXX wrote:
> 
> >   Those who have never operated a remailer fail to realize that
> > the main goal of a remailer-operator should not be to provide
> > a non-discriminatory forwarding service for anonymous users, but
> > to ensure continued operation by not ruffling the feathers of
> > upstream providers, and to provide a spam/UCE filtering service
> 
> If the xxxx remailer was to allow non-PGP message and to stop
> processing block requests, would you be willing to underwrite any legal
> costs incurred?

  Nope. I have always found that those who attempt to cause me legal
problems find themselves suddenly beset by problems of a much greater
magnitude than those presented by my presence and actions, and quickly
turn their attention to dealing with the greater problems in their life.

> You yourself know how repressive the Canadian government is, look at the
> RCMP takeover in Moncton, look at the RCMP attacking (law-abiding)
> protestors at APEC, it is all around us. We are trying to preserve feedoms
> in Canada, but I don't see any results from your cynical crap. All you
> seem to do is whin, poke fun, and annoy. At the end of the day how much
> have you done? I am growing tried of your holier than thou speech from the
> throne.

  Actually, it is difficult to maintain a 'holier than thou' attitude
when you're a cynical, whining, annoying asshole (but Lord knows, I 
try).
  As to how much I *do* by the end of the day, it is really nobody's
business but my own, since the repressive forces you mention above
make it advisable for many forms of active resistance to oppression
to be done quietly, or from the shadows.
  Even when poking fun at fellow remailer-operators who sometimes
appear to have forgotten that their original objective was to drain
the swamp, I assume that the activities reflected in their public
communications are not necessarily representative of their total
contribution to providing tools and services supporting the basic
human rights and freedoms which have become increasingly dangerous
to exercise.

  The public remailers being maintained are an important training
ground and showcase for the communications and privacy/anonymity
tools being developed and used in their operation, but their very
availability itself results in their exposure to the haphazard
vagarities of social pressures and targeted oppression by those
forces which feel threatened by tools which allow others to avoid
being monitored and controlled.
  Current threads on the CypherPunks list regarding Eternity servers,
mirrors, BlackNet, covert and/or private backroads on the 'Super-
Highway', etc., are being disseminated to--and studied with great
interest by--a wide variety of individuals who are fast becoming
increasingly aware that the next few years will be turbulent times
wherein those who fail to take steps to cover their own ass will find
themselves being 'protected' by the government and corporate wolves
offering us technologies based only on the "Trust Us" system.
  Revolutions rarely begin with grand pronouncements and massive public
displays of resistance in the street. They usually begin in basements
and secret rooms where increasing numbers of citizens begin preparing
to protect and defend their own freedom and rights. When the shit hits
the fan, many are surprised to find how many of their friends and
neighbors have already been doing the same.

The Revolution is *always* NOW!