REMAIL: Anon.penet.fi no more

[jthomas@coconut.mitre.org (Joe Thomas)]

You probably have seen this already, but it's certainly of relevance  
to cypherpunks:

> Newsgroups:  
comp.org.eff.talk,news.admin.policy,alt.privacy,alt.sexual.abuse.reco 
very,alt.support,alt.transgendered,soc.motss
> Path:  
linus.mitre.org!linus!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa 
.gov!decwrl!uunet!mcsun!fuug!penet!julf
> From: julf@penet.fi (Ze Julf)
> Subject: Anon.penet.fi no more
> Organization: No!
> Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1993 15:03:59 GMT
> Message-ID: <1993Mar23.150359.16883@penet.fi>
> Lines: 54
> 

> The anonymous service at anon.penet.fi has been closed down.  
Postings to
> netnews and mail to arbitrary addresses has been blocked. To enable  
users
> who know each other only by their anon ID's to arrange alternate
> communication paths, mail to anonymous users will still be  
supported for
> two weeks. After this period all database entries will be deleted.
> 

> Due to the lawsuit-intensive climate in the US, many anonymous  
services have
> been short-lived. By setting up anon.penet.fi in Finland, I hoped  
to create
> a more stable service. Anon.penet.fi managed to stay in operation  
for almost
> five months. The service was protected from most of the usual  
problems that
> had forced other services to shut down. But there are always going  
to be
> ways to stop something as controversial as an anon service. In this  
case, a
> very well-known and extremely highly regarded net personality  
managed to
> contact exactly the right people to create a situation where it is
> politically impossible for me to continue running the service.
> 

> But of course this political situation is mainly caused by the  
abuse of the
> network that a very small minority of anon users engaged in. This  
small
> group of immature and thoughtless individuals (mainly users from US
> universities) caused much aggravation and negative feelings towards  
the
> service. This is especially unfortunate considering these people  
really are
> a minuscule minority of anon users. The latest statistics from the  
service
> show 18203 registered users, 3500 messages per day on the average,  
and
> postings to 576 newsgroups. Of these users, I have received  
complaints
> involving postings from 57 anonymous users, and, of these, been  
forced to
> block only 8 users who continued their abuse despite a warning from  
me.
> 

> In retrospect I realize that I have been guilty to keeping a far  
too low
> profile on the network, prefering to deal with the abuse cases  
privately
> instead of making strong public statements. Unfortunately I  
realized this
> only a couple of days before being forced to shut down the service,  
but the
> results of a single posting to alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.d gave  
very
> positive results. I take full blaim for my failure to realize the
> psychological effects of a strongly stated, publicly visible  
display of
> policy with regards to the abuse cases. For this I have to  
apologize to the
> whole net community.
> 

> On the other hand I am deeply concerned by the fact that the  
strongest
> opposition to the service didn't come from users but from network
> administrators. I don't think sysadmins have a god-given mandate to
> dictate what's good for the users and what's not. A lot of users  
have
> contacted me to thank me for the service, describing situations  
where
> anonymity has been crucial, but I could never have imagined in my  
wildest
> dreams. At the same time quite a few network administrators have  
made
> comments like "I can't imagine any valid use for anonymity on the  
net" and
> "The only use for anonymity is to harrass and terrorize the net".
> 

> Nevertheless, I really want to apologize both to all the users on  
the
> network who have suffered from the abusive misuse of the server,  
and to all
> the users who have come to rely on the service. Again, I take full
> responsibility for what has happened.
> 

> 	Julf
> 


Very sad, rather scary.  Sorry to hear this, Julf.

Joe