Re: USPS

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

At 1:54 PM 8/26/96, Bruce M. wrote:
>On Fri, 23 Aug 1996, William H. Geiger III wrote:
>
>> Once in place all the goverment needs to do is ban all e-mail not sent
>> through their system. Add this to the outlawing of all non-keyescrowed
>> encryption, and the ability to archive all messages sent through their
>> system. Now the goverment would have total access to everything you
>> wright.
>
>    Why not?  I believe it is already illegal to place anything in a
>person's physical mail box that the post office hasn't processed.  For
>the sake of preserving the 'integrity and security' of the Internet I
>can see the govt. taking such future actions.

I'm skeptical of this analogy (that it could be used to take control of e-mail).

The postal mailboxes that the Postal Service claims to control are those
that are either marked "U.S. Mail" or fit the form and function typically
associated with a "mailbox." A box standing on a post by the side of the
road near one's house, for example. Often saying something about "Approved
by the U.S. Postal Service," blah blah. The Postal Service has nominal
ownership of these boxes, even when installed by customers (as is the norm,
of course).

(This comes up in one major way: non-Postal Service deliveries are not
supposed to be made into such boxes. Secondly, there are limits on what
customers can do to "defend" these boxes against vandals...this has come up
in discussions of placing a small box inside a large box and filling the
space between with cement, to break the arms of hooligans who play "mailbox
baseball.")

Anyone is free to place boxes on their property marked "For Federal Express
Deliveries," "For Packages from Neighbors," etc. Or to rent "Mailboxes,
Etc."-type boxes.

These latter examples are analogous to e-mail accounts folks have at
various ISPs. Or to Mailboxes, Etc.-type rental boxes.

The Postal Service has limited jurisdiction over rental mailboxes, and even
less authority over my placing of a "UPS leave stuff here" box on my porch.

Thus, I don't seen the analogy as giving the Postal Service more sweeping
powers over e-mail than they already have over physical deliveries. And
given the already-anarchic and already-distributed nature of e-mail, it's
hopeless.

--Tim May

We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
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