Re: SEVERE undercapacity, we need more remailer servers FAST

[Hal <hfinney@shell.portal.com>]

The problem that I think the Scientology postings raise is that the
remailers cannot really be used to post copyrighted material.  That is
what got the netherlands hacktic remailer shut down.  This shows, BTW,
that being outside the United States is no guarantee of immunity.  Most
Western countries support copyrights.

Maybe the operators can try to plead that they are like "common carriers"
and should not be blamed for what people post.  Still it is going to take
deep pockets at best to prevail in this dispute, and it isn't even clear
that the remailer will win.  Maybe the lawyers on the list could comment
on legal liability of a remailer used to repeatedly post copyrighted
material, whether Scientology scriptures or Microsoft Word binaries.  I
don't see how it can happen.

(This ties in, BTW, with my posting yesterday about problems with the
"anonymous company" concept.  It is not clear that any of the
technologies we have discussed will allow continuous, long-term and
reliable broadcasting of illegal material.)

Presently all the remailers operate for free, which makes it even harder
to justify taking the chance of facing an expensive lawsuit.  On the
other hand, at least if no commercial gain is involved the operator might
escape some forms of damages if he loses.  A for-pay remailer which is
posting copyrighted material could be in even more trouble, it seems to
me.  Again, legal opinions would be welcome.

This was the basis for my suggestion that remailers may have to stop
supporting posting of messages, and instead be used for private mail
between consenting individuals.  Granted, this would probably eliminate
99% of non-cover remailer traffic.  But I would argue that as long as the
core functionality is there of letting people communicate with each other
anonymously and consensually, we would still offer an important service.

After all, what is the purpose of anonymous remailers?  It isn't really
to allow harrassing and abusive messages to be sent to one's enemies.
And it isn't to defeat intellectual property laws by proving that no one
can stop this material from being posted (remailers can't succeed in
doing this, as I said above).  Rather, I view remailers as a natural
extension of encryption.

Encryption hides the contents of the messages you send from
eavesdroppers.  But they can still see who you are communicating with.
Remailers extend privacy protection beyond "what you say" to "who you say
it to".  When used with pseudonym servers and some of the extensions we
have discussed here over the years (maildrops, etc.), they can allow the
anonymous two-way communication that is needed for real privacy.

This has nothing to do with tweaking Microsoft or Scientology by posting
information they own.  If people want to do that, they need to find
another method.  Maybe they can get usenet shut down if they try hard
enough.  I don't know how that battle is going to come out.  But I don't
see the remailers as playing an important role there.

Hal