Re: Anonymity and Intellectual Capital

[s1113645@tesla.cc.uottawa.ca]

On Sat, 18 Nov 1995, David Murray wrote:

> To pick up on a couple of Professor Post's ideas - limited liability of
> untraceable pseudonyms, and choice of rule sets in cyberspace (see Post,
> "Anarchy, State, and the Internet: An Essay on Law-Making in Cyberspace"
> 1995 J Online Law art 3), I suggest that arbitration is well suited to
Great! Where? (damn I should keep my older posts for a bit longer)

> pseudonymous commerce, and  propose the use of an old device - the 
> unincorporated, or deed of settlement, company.

Interesting. I just read that Liechtenstein allows anonymous corporations
(as in you register for it anonymously). I'm curious to know how this 
works (if I've got it right). It might also become rather interesting 
when one enterprising tax haven permits registration for these things 
online (and hopefully automatically, for the proper anon fee).

Barring escrow services, I don't see how contracts (or a lot of 
other laws) could be enforced against these entities when they can simply pop 
in and out of existence (unless they have some physical counterpart, like 
a storefront and merchandise. But then these are easily linkable to True 
Names, unlike software companies, financial services or any other part of 
the info economy.)

The value of a reputation is not particularly high in lots of cases or is 
occasionally worth throwing over for a big one-time scam. (Pyramid scams
for "reputable" banks)
While I'd love to set one up, I would never do any risky commerce with one.

Besides, if companies in general can set up other companies, in a 
trustworthy and non-anon jurisdiction, couldn't these foreign anon companies 
do the same in the present system and therefore make it very hard to know 
if any company in any country is non-anon? Are there any present legal 
barriers against this? 

I don't know much about the requirements of incorporation or the natures
of various types of corporations, so please feel free to correct me.
I'm not completely sure I understood your explanation of a 
deed-of-settlement corp. and the idea of an "unincorporated" company. 
(Unincorporated in what way, and what were the registration and ID 
requirements?)

Any references? Thanks.

Ps. I know I could probably look this up, but exactly what are bearer bonds?
I frequently hear them mentioned when market anonymity and money laundering 
come up.