Re: my remailer taking some (mild) heat [LONG]

This is disturbing news!

I'm sorry for any spelling errors here.

Please read on!

> ##### I responded:: #####
> 
> Brad,
> 
>   # I included his initial message here
> 
> This is distressing to me.  I don't run a remailer to abet infringers of
> copy (or other) rights.  I certainly do not condone this action. 
> Unfortunately, there is little I can do after the fact.  My remailer is not
> the sort that requires a priori relationships.  If a message has the right
> sort of header, the remailer sends it on its way ... no questions asked.  I
> never see any mail that passes through my remailer.  I keep no logs, the
> efficacy of which would be compromised in any case by remailer chaining or
> encryption.  I can block remailing to or from any particular address, but
> my remailer is incapable of taking action based on content.  I am sorry
> that I can neither tell you who it was, nor contact them ... not because I
> don't wish to, but because I am unable to.

Would this guy told Brad if he could? I'll newer use that remailer 
again!

> I will happily assist you in any way that I am able.  What follows is my
> public policy with respect to the remailer.  It details my capabilities and
> attitude.

[....]

> ##### Brad Templeton wrote:: #####
> 
> I understand your policy, and I suspect that down the road that while
> anon remailers will continue to exist and serve a purpose, those that allow
> people to break laws behind them (defamation and copyright, and possibly
> kiddie-porn in particular) will have to shut down.

I think appinions change from here you live. I live kind of close up 
to Russia (Live in Norway). Norway is a sosialistic(?) country and 
we actually had the World War II here, so we have felt, and can see 
what the freedom of speach is. So Imagine that I am an Albanian 
citisen(?) and have some disturbing news about the Albanian goverment. 
I post this news to the world through this remailer. Wouldn't I be 
breaking a law by doing this? Yes, I would! Use your brains! Wouldn't 
this news be of importance for the world? And to you trigger-happy 
americans: What if the news about the invasion of Quwait 
came from Iraq trough an anon remailer? Wasn't that of "importance 
for the world"?? Or did you americans loose so many lives for nothing?
The world is at war! And I would allow nearly any action to 
distribute information! Eaven if this means that sombody is using my 
remailer to break the law by distributing copyrighted information.

[....]
> 
> I think the right answer is a remailer that logs, allows replies (like
> the finet one) and which opens up in the case of illegal postings, or
> any other postings that don't follow its rules.  It might say that
> it demands a warrant, for example.

Ok, if the police come and wake my up an morning with an warrant, 
they might still need me to get the information they are looking for. 
(I like encryption!) If the warrant was about kiddy-porn I might give 
the police what they wanted, but not before I saw the warrant! If 
they wanted some politicaly mail from Russia/Albania I would rather 
low-level formated my harddisk!

This Brad-person didn't bring a warrant! So I would have told him to 
put his nose somhere else! Sorry but my world is black an white (At 
least a norwegian saying!) 

Look at the Subject again. "my remailer taking some (mild) heat"
If you dont know how to handle the mild heat, how would you handle 
the glowing heat?

I'm sorry if this was a little to hard on some of you, but this is 
my appinion. 

Regards,
Halvor Kise jr. (which is putting an remailer up soon)

--

                         * MEMENTO MORI *

        _____________________________________________________
        | Halvor Kise jr.     *  halvork@sofus.dhhalden.no  |
        |                     *  halvork@gyda.dhhalden.no   |
        |     Ostfold         *  halvork@frodo.dhhalden.no  |
        | Regional College    *        Student at           |
        |  N-1757 Halden      *     Computer Science        |
        |                     *                             |
        |                                                   |
        |         Finger halvork@sofus for PGP-key          |
        -----------------------------------------------------

"Halvor Kise jr." <HALVORK@dhhalden.no> wrote:

(with reference to Scott Collins catalyst-remailer):
> Would this guy told Brad if he could? I'll newer use that
> remailer again!

I think you're missing the point.  He doesn't keep logs so that nobody
can try to force him to reveal someone's identity.  It provides a very
convienient excuse. :)  And it certainly reinforces my trust in the
remailer to protect my anonymnity.

> I think appinions change from here you live. I live kind of close
> up to Russia (Live in Norway). Norway is a sosialistic(?) country
> and we actually had the World War II here, so we have felt, and
> can see what the freedom of speach is. So Imagine that I am an
> Albanian citisen(?) and have some disturbing news about the
> Albanian goverment.  I post this news to the world through this
> remailer. Wouldn't I be breaking a law by doing this? Yes, I
> would! Use your brains! Wouldn't this news be of importance
> for the world? And to you trigger-happy americans: What if the
> news about the invasion of Quwait came from Iraq trough an
> anon remailer? Wasn't that of "importance for the world"??
> Or did you americans loose so many lives for nothing? The
> world is at war! And I would allow nearly any action to 
> distribute information! Eaven if this means that sombody is
> using my remailer to break the law by distributing
> copyrighted information.

This is the reason that we have tried so hard to get remailers all over
the world.  Unfortunatly, with one exception, all our remailers are in
the United States.  If someone was sending copyrighted material through
my remailer, and the AP got upset about it, they could do a lot to
harass me, as I'm sure they have contacts with people at this
university, since they are a large American-based news agency and have
offices in this area.  If some Albanian or Norweigen government person
started complaining, I could basically tell them to take a hike (or less
idiomatically, ignore them and tell them to go away).  They certainly
aren't going to take a trip across the Atlantic just to come over here
and make trouble for me because of a few politically incorrect messages,
and I doubt they could seriously interest the government here with their
own polticial problems.  This is why I strongly encourage you to set up
a remailer in Norway.  If we can have many remailers distributed
throughout the world, the chances of political pressures threatening the
remailers is diminished.