Re: Anguilla story...

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 2:24 PM 8/13/96, Vincent Cate wrote:

>In a nut shell, taxbomber.com was on my system in Anguilla.  He was
>selling "camoflauge passports".  One David Evans of Bloomberg Business
>News wrote an article where he quoted taxbombers page saying something
>like "it is illegal to use these passports to open up bank accounts, but
>there is little chance of getting caught". I got a call from my lawyer who
>had seen the article (along with just about everyone else in Anguilla) and
>he told me that was illegal in Anguilla and I should cancle the account.
>I did and taxbomber moved to another provider in another country.
>
>1) A number of cypherpunks are dissapointed that I did not fight to my
>death to defend this guy.

I think you're overstating the case made by some of us, or, at least, by me.

What I said was that your policies need to be spelled out, and that I saw
little evidence of "fraud" in what the guy was doing. And that if you cut
off accounts (without warning, it sounds like) based on fairly flimsy (it
seems to me, and to Duncan, and to others) advice, then certain
reputational consequences are likely to follow.

By the way, from what you quote this guy as saying ("it is illegal to use
these passports to open up bank accounts, but there is little chance of
getting caught"), I _still_ see no fraud. People can make all sorts of
claims, often they throw in claims of illegality or "pirate" status just to
add a frisson of the dangerous to their marketing campaign.

Cancelling an account on such a basis is rarely wise. That "everyone else
in Anguilla" read the account may be the real reason, of course. Not that
this reason instills much confidence....

>2) If the guy did not mention where his site was, the reporter probably
>would never have mentioned Anguilla and me in the article.

Is this the real issue, that what he was doing brought bad publicity to you
and to Anguilla?

These issues need to be aired. Of course you have every right to run things
as you wish, modulo contractual arrangements you may have entered into with
your customers and your Internet providers. But we on this list have
certain ideas about what an "offshore information provider" should provide.

Contrast this case with the well-publicized cases recently where Neo-Nazi
material is being hosted on U.S. web sites. After getting a lot of
publicity, the web site providers stood firm and said they were not in the
business of removing such sites, even if they brought a lot of bad
publicity and even if they were in fact in violation of the laws of some
countries whose citizens could access the sites. I don't claim camouflage
passports = Neo-Nazi sites, but their are certainly some similarities. So,
if I opened an account on "Offshore Information Services" and placed such
materials there, and this got heavily publicized ("Anguilla a Center for
Neo-Nazi Revival!"), would my account be cancelled?

Again, I'm not saying you don't have the "right" to do so, only that you
ought to carefully consider such issues, and carefully articulate a policy
of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable, and how you will deal
with customers who have some material (or even some marketing claims) which
may conflict with your policies.

--Tim May

HOW TO MAKE A PIPE BOMB:
"Buy a section of metal water pipe 1/2 by 6 inches long, threaded on both
ends.  Buy two metal caps to fit.  These are standard items in hardware
stores.  Drill a 1/16th hole in the center of the pipe. This is easy with a
good drill bit. Hanson is a good brand to use.  Screw a metal cap tightly
on one end. Fill the pipe to within 1/2 inch of the top with black powder.
Do not pack the powder. Don't even tap the bottom of the pipe to make it
settle.  You want the powder loose.  For maximum explosive effect, you need
dry, fine powder sitting loose in a very rigid container." (more
information at http://sdcc13.ucsd.edu/~m1lopez/pipe.html, or by using
search engines)