Re: The Crisis with Remailers

[Bruce Baugh <bruce@aracnet.com>]

At 12:30 AM 5/22/96 EDT, E. ALLEN SMITH wrote:

>	Would you suspect that having more warning labels (before & after,
>not just in the headers) would help with any negative reputation thus
>generated?

Probably not. Does it really matter how many times I tell you "I'm not being
a jerk" if everything I send you is in fact jerky? (FBI and "this is not an
assault", anyone?)

Pointing people at legitimate uses of anonymity, as various folks have
suggested, is undoubtedly a good idea. Would anyone care to suggest a few
newsgroups where the vast majority of anonymous posts have really good
reasons for being so?

In cases where there's been serious abuse of remailers that's been caught
and dealt with, some PR on the part of remailer operators might go a long
way toward helping things. "Yes, this person was doing loathsome things, but
we put a stop to it [insert details here."

>put into public view... I see no reason to give lawyers more of a privilege
>than religious/psychiatric individuals.

Ditto. Likewise, I liked the instance last year of a student applying for
the mail logs of the local (state?) government. It is Good for rulers to
feel the same weight of the rules they impose on others.

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