Re: The Crisis with Remailers

[Bruce Baugh <bruce@aracnet.com>]

At 01:06 PM 5/18/96 -0700, Dimitri Vulis wrote:

>hence my comments from here from time to time that the technological
>problems of anonymity are not the true obstacle to widespread use. 
>there are deeper problems that cpunks skirt around but fail to grasp
>because of numerous prejudices. 

While I hate to lend support to anyone as much a twit as Vulis is, he's got
a point here. I don't think most cypherpunks realize how anonymity is
perceived out in the net at large.

Take news.groups, a fairly important group I happen to read regularly. With
the exception of Rich Graves' presence, _all_ the uses I see there are for
cowardly abuse in a way that lets the poster escape having to answer for his
views. I'm not talking about presenting important information where
wrong-headed authorities could engage in reprisals, either, but baseless
accusations of theft, child abuse, and just plain torrents of obscenity.

That's _all_ it's used for (again, with the exception of Rich).

There's a problem here. It's one thing to say that the benefits of anonymity
outweigh the problems. I'm inclined to that view myself. But it's much
harder to defend that view in a forum where anonymity is used so commonly
for problematic ends, and to offer anything in the way of constructive
solutions. It would be pleasing to see more cypherpunks actively dealing
with these problems out there in net.land.

--
Bruce Baugh
bruce@aracnet.com
http://www.aracnet.com/~bruce