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Nando.Net on Observer, Julf
Good luck. Overall a positive article, although I've noted one definite
goof. I wonder if it would be possible to sue this FBI idiot as well as The
Observer?
-Allen
> Avis
> FINN REJECTS INTERNET CHILD PORN CLAIMS
__________________________________________________________________________
> Copyright © 1996 Nando.net
> Copyright © 1996 Reuter Information Service
> HELSINKI (Aug 26, 1996 10:53 a.m. EDT) - On the eve of a major
> conference on child sex abuse, a Finnish Internet specialist on Monday
> angrily dismissed allegations in a British newspaper that his system
> handled up to 90 percent of child pornography on the Net.
[...]
> The newspaper reported the charges, by a U.S. policeman and FBI
> adviser, in the run-up to an international conference in Stockholm on
> the commercial sexual exploitation of children starting on Tuesday.
> Finnish police also said they had found no evidence in areas they can
> investigate that Helsingius's system is now being used to forward
> child pornography on a large scale.
> "We are working very closely with the authorities and the child
> protection agencies -- I am always encouraging people to report any
> incidence of child pornography they see on the Internet to police, so
> that they can investigate and act," Helsingius told Reuters by
> telephone.
> The Observer quoted Toby Tyler, a Federal Bureau of Investigation
> adviser on child abuse and pornography, as saying 75-90 percent of the
> child pornography he saw on the Internet was forwarded through
> Helsingius' system.
> Internet remailers are computers which receive and forward messages
> with a pseudonym or anonymous source.
> There are about five in the world, and they exist to enable anonymous
> discussion of sensitive subjects -- for instance by victims of child
> abuse, potential suicides or people in politically repressed
> societies.
Five? Someone's miscounted...
> Helsingius said one key reason his system would not be used for
> pornorgaphy was that it has built-in capacity limitations which make
> it impossible to send large pictures through it -- only small amounts
> of text.
> "Also the groups where pictures are carried...are not supported in my
> server," he said.
> It could be possible to compress and chop up picture material for use
> through the server but this would involve using "tens or hundreds of
> separate messages," he said.
> Kai Malmberg, a Helsinki police specialist in Internet affairs, said
> he had in the past found child pornography remailed through the server
> but it had stopped since police started investigating.
> "I've found really no evidence of the Finnish remailer being used for
> child pornography," he said. "But we can't -- we don't want to --
> check people's mail. That would be like going into the post office and
> opening all the letters.
> "I believe that he's quite sincere in trying to protect his server for
> people to discuss sensitive issues," he said.
> Asked if his system could be used to carry child pornography through
> individual e-mail messages, Helsingius said this was possible but not
> on a large scale as it does not support e-mail systems which
> simultaneously send to many recipients.
> But he said it was possible for Internet experts to imitate his
> remailer address to make it seem as if messages were coming through
> his system.
> "In a prevous case roughly a year ago we could find a couple of cases
> of child porn," he said. "It was actually posted in the UK to the UK
> -- it didn't come to Finland at all but it was being made to look like
> it came from my server. Anyone can alter the origination information."
> He said all the allegations about his remailer seemed to stem from
> Tyler, yet he had been unable to contact him. Tyler was travelling to
> the Stockholm conference on Monday and unavailable for comment.
> "The fact that he's claiming 90 percent of the child porn goes through
> my remailer is pretty far from the truth. There might be the
> occasional instance and we are actively working against that,"
> Helsingius said.
> "My reputation has been tarnished all over Europe. We will take legal
> action, but we are not quite sure in what country."
[...]
> Copyright © 1996 Nando.net