Asendmail Status & Politikal Rant

[Ben Holiday <ncognito@gate.net>]

Well, asendmail has been running for several days now, handling outbound
mix mail from my remailer. It appears to be getting the mail through
reliably, although there are still a few bugs.

After reading through the responses from other cypherpunks and interested
parties, I decided to make a few changes to the software, the largest of
which was support for a separate configuration file of text strings to be
sent in SMTP's initial HELO command. It is possible to add as many lines
as you care to in the list of fake HELO strings, which should satisfy the
need (want?) for randomness in the headering of outbound mail, without
restricting anyone to useing either faked site names, OR real site names.

I'll be working on final preparation of README's and install notes, and
should have a tar.gziped source available by friday at the outside. Once
the initial software is released I'll put together a mail robot to help
with gathering proxy addresses.

I still need test mail to be routed through the mailer! Everything appears
to be OK, but I'd like more chances to see what is happening with mail
that gets resent this way.


On to politiks:

I understand that the entire concpet of this program is a bit
controversial, and I can accept that.  Personnaly I am not certain exactly
how to feel about it.  I suppose that I am not thrilled about the idea of
cloaking the mailer this way, but at the same time I perceive it as an
evil of requirement. I beleive very strongly that remailers SHOULD exist,
whether or not the CoS, or the FBI agree; and I am willing to be a bit
impolite if thats what needs to be. My only hesitation is that I'm afraid
now might be to soon.

At the same time I think it would be unfortunate if it came down to
someone actually going to jail for remailing before people are willing to
do something that may be a bit extreme.

Anyway, someone raised the argument that the problem was political, and
that a technical solution would do more harm than good - maybe you're
right, I can't see the future, But it seems to me that I read somewhere
that "Cypherpunks Write Code". This statement is amazingly profound in its
implications.

Anonymous communication on the net depends on the technical solutions
embodied in the current remailing software, and cryptography applications.
If, years ago, the cypherpunks had decided that a publicity campaign,
political lobbying, and apologizing were the right course of action,
anonymous speach on the internet would be virtually non-existant today. If
the cypherpunks decide today that coding is not the answer, where will
free speach on the net be in 5 years? I think it is very naive to beleive
that the world is going to change enough, quickly enough, that remailers
will become accepted, and protected, methods of speaking - no matter how
politically correct we try to be.

Why do we see big business and big government launching a full frontal
assault on the remailers, while the mailing lists continue to operate
without incident? Because the enemy's of free speach recognize where the
true threat to their opression lies. Relying on politics to preserve our rights
is like throwing down your gun and asking the bear to please not eat you.

The powers that be want us to shut up. The programs that we write are the 
weapons that will defend our right to speak.