Re: more ideas on anonymity

[Theodore Ts'o <tytso@Athena.MIT.EDU>]

   From: gnu@toad.com (John Gilmore)
   Date: Fri, 26 Feb 93 03:01:53 -0800

   Squabbling over what "crimes" or "antisocial acts" should disqualify one
   from being able to use anonymity is ***WAY*** missing the point.  It is
   the people who have crossed one of those lines who need the protection the
   most!  

It is perhaps tempting to say that people committing antisocial acts and
crimes should be protected, if the image that comes to your mind is the
courageeous freedom fighter.  On the other hand, it behooves us all to
remember that "protecting criminals" also includes protecting the people
who threaten rape, murder or other violence.  

It may be the case that in order to protect the "freedom fighter", we
must also strike down the laws that protect us from the "axe murderer".
But we must make this choice consciously.  It is silly and stupid of us
to be obsessed with protecting ourselves from the axe murderer, that we
we are also surpressing basic freedomes.  At the same time, however, we
must not wax over-romantic thinking about the plight of the "freedom
fighter", of the "angry young man", without remembering that there are
also some really nasty people out there.

While anonymity has its features, we would do well to acknowledge that
it also has its dark side.  That people may hide behind a remailer, and
send hateful, petting, harrassing things that they might otherwise not
say if they actually had to take personal responsibility for their
actions.   Keep in mind that part of the mystique of the "freedom
fighter", who takes on the government in his/her selfless task of
Democracy and the American Way, is his courage and his willingness to
take personal risk and personal injury in his Quest For the Right.

Would we have the same respect for a coward who evades his personal
responsibility by sending petty, hateful mail through a remailer; who
breaks laws that he/she thinks are unjust, but is unwilling to face the
consequences of breaking said laws?  Remember, a big part of civil
disobedience is the willingness to be arrested.

						- Ted