Regulatory Risks

So if the feds intend to regulate cyberspace, what specific sorts of
regulations are possible at this point?

Forget laws, what is *technically* and institutionally feasible?

Can they just throw out TCP/IP and mandate X25?  Can TCP/IP be "tamed?"  How
can they control private virtual networks that piggyback on the basic
network structure?  

Just questions.  No answers.

DCF
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On Wed, 4 Jan 1995, Duncan Frissell wrote:

> So if the feds intend to regulate cyberspace, what specific sorts of
> regulations are possible at this point?
> 
> Forget laws, what is *technically* and institutionally feasible?

Criminalize anonymity, and tell the internet providers to figure
out how to enforce it or face confiscation.

After that, they can get involved in the standards business to
ensure that when the current 32 bit internet address space
is upgraded, we go with a system where the technology 
supports centralized administration rather than anarchy.

They can do it -- but they probably will not.  Recent political
events mean that such actions can only be done on presidential
authority.   It will be impossible to obtain new law to enforce
such measures for at least four years.


There will be eventually a big confrontation between governments
and liberty in cyberspace -- but I doubt that this is it.

This one can be won with a few letters to the editor.


 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
We have the right to defend ourselves and our
property, because of the kind of animals that we        James A. Donald
are.  True law derives from this right, not from
the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state.            jamesd@netcom.com

> Criminalize anonymity, and tell the internet providers to figure
> out how to enforce it or face confiscation.

   Which would probably amount to sniffing all packet traffic.

   If that ban was implemented, so would ways around it be implemented.  
I would prefer that they not need to be invented but if they must be, 
they will be.

-jon

( --------[ Jonathan D. Cooper ]--------[ entropy@intnet.net ]-------- )
( PGP 2.6.2 keyprint: 31 50 8F 82 B9 79 ED C4  5B 12 A0 35 E0 9B C0 01 )
( home page: http://taz.hyperreal.com/~entropy/ ]---[ Key-ID: 4082CCB5 )

Jonathan Cooper wrote:
> 
> > Criminalize anonymity, and tell the internet providers to figure
> > out how to enforce it or face confiscation.
> 
>    Which would probably amount to sniffing all packet traffic.
> 
>    If that ban was implemented, so would ways around it be implemented.  
> I would prefer that they not need to be invented but if they must be, 
> they will be.

This same topic--the outlawing of anonymity and anonymous
remailers--is also being debated on the Cyberia list, as many of you
know. (Timely, I guess, because of the Siegel comments, the Lewis
article, and the Church of Scientology threats.)

The ways around such a ban are so patently obvious that any such "ban"
is unenforceable. I wrote a piece on this for the Cyberia list, but
this was my single most important point:

If anonymous mail is outlawed, then the anonymous mailers can attach
real names. To wit, all mail from a famous remailing site in the
Netherlands could be marked as being from "Hans Brinker." This would
presumably meet the letter of the law, if not the "spirit." (I always
did hate this "spirit.")

Further, sites which "forward" anonymous mail, or mail from "Hans
Brinker," are in most cases precluded by the ECPA from screening this
mail or otherwise examining it.

I see no prospect whatsover that a ban on anonymous mail could be
implemented, enforced, or upheld in the courts.

--Tim May


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