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Helsingius shuts down anon.penet.fi server in Finland (fwd)
This just came over the fight-censorship list.
---
Zach Babayco
[email protected] <----- finger for PGP public key
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 13:11:56 -0500
From: Declan McCullagh <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected], [email protected]
Subject: Helsingius shuts down anon.penet.fi server in Finland
This is a sad day in the history of the Net. Hundreds of thousands of
people had accounts on Julf's pseudonmyous server and many netizens relied
on it daily to preserve their privacy online. (Unlike cypherpunk remailers,
it's not truly anonymous since Julf keeps records of what anon id maps to
what email address.) From Azeem's report and the press release below,
Julf's move seems to be in response to a Finnish court's preliminary
decision that the privacy remailers could be violated by court order --
something the Scientologists have been pushing.
Still, I'd be surprised if Julf's decision wasn't prompted in part by the
hideous London Observer article that falsely accused him of being a
middleman in the distribution of child porn -- check out a scan of the
Sunday cover at:
http://scallywag.com/
-Declan
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 17:11:51 +0100
From: Azeem Azhar <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: [ALERT] Penet is dead
Hello all,
I just got off the phone with Johann Helsingius who runs the
anon.penet.fi anonymous e-mail service.
1. He has decided to close the service.
2. This is not related to the article in The Observer. It is, in fact,
due to a decision of a lower Finnish court on petition from the Church
of Scientology. Penet went to court last week and made the decision
today. The implication of the decision is that e-mail over the Internet
is not protect by the usual Finnish privacy laws.
3. The server is currently down while Julf re-writes the software. Once
it runs again, it will be phased out for private use, but groups such as
the Samaritans and human rights agencies should be able to use it.
4. They are appealing against the decision.
5. Julf expects that revisions in Finnish law to provide a safe legal
status for anonymous remailers will be in place at the earliest in
Spring next year.
6. Once again: this is unrelated to The Observer's scandalous reporting.
Your faithful furry friend,
Azeem
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 17:15:41 +0100
From: Azeem Azhar <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: [ALERT} Penet is dead (correction)
Sorry . . . a slight error:
> 2. This is not related to the article in The Observer. It is, in fact,
> due to a decision of a lower Finnish court on petition from the Church
> of Scientology. Penet went to court last week and made the decision
> today. The implication of the decision is that e-mail over the Internet
> is not protect by the usual Finnish privacy laws.
The implication of the court's decision (rather than Penet's to shut the
server) is that e-mail over the Internet is not protected by the usual
Finnish privacy laws.
Sorry!
--
[Julf's press release. -Declan]
PRESS RELEASE
30.8.1996
Johan Helsingius closes his Internet remailer
Johan Helsingius from Helsinki has decided to close his Internet
remailer. The so-called anonymous remailer is the most popular
remailer in the world, with over half a million users.
"I will close down the remailer for the time being because the legal
issues governing the whole Internet in Finland are yet undefined. The
legal protection of the users needs to be clarified. At the moment the
privacy of Internet messages is judicially unclear."
The idea of an anonymous remailer is to protect the confidentiality of it�s
users� identity. The remailer itself does not store messages but serves as a
channel for message transmission. The remailer forwards messages
without the identity of the original sender.
Finland is one of the leading countries in Internet usage. Therefore all
decisions and changes made in Finland arouse wide international interest.
"I have developed and maintained the remailer in my free time for over
three years now. It has taken up a lot of time and energy. Internet has
changed a lot in these three years - now there are dozens of remailers in
the world, which offer similar services."
"I have also personally been a target because of the remailer for three
years. Unjustified accusations affect both my job and my private life"
says Johan Helsingius.
He surmises that the closing of the remailer will raise a lot of discussion
among the Internet community. "These remailers have made it possible
for people to discuss very sensitive matters, such as domestic violence,
school bullying or human rights issues anonymously and confidentially
on the Internet. To them the closing of the remailer is a serious problem",
says Helsingius.
Child porn claims proven false
Last Sunday�s issue of the English newspaper Observer claimed that the
remailer has been used for transmitting child pornography pictures. The
claims have been investigated by the Finnish police. Observer�s claims
have been found groundless.
Police sergeant Kaj Malmberg from the Helsinki Police Crime Squad is
specialized in investigating computer crimes. He confirms that already a
year ago Johan Helsingius restricted the operations of his remailer so that
it cannot transmit pictures.
"The true amount of child pornography in Internet is difficult to assess,
but one thing is clear: We have not found any cases where child porn
pictures were transmitted from Finland", Kaj Malmberg says.
Ground rules need to be clarified
There are several large network projects going on in Finland at the
moment, such as the TIVEKE project run by the Ministry of
Communications and the Information Society Forum project run by the
Ministry of Finance. Johan Helsingius is participating the work of these
projects. Projects assess the political and social issues of networks and
the impact of these issues in the long run. These projects also need the
support of daily, practical work to help short-term decision-making.
Johan Helsingius is now taking an initiative in the development of the
daily network rules. He wants to set up a task force to discuss the
practical problems related to ethical and civil rights issues in connection
with the Internet.
"I will try to set up a task force which will include Internet
experts together with representatives of civic organizations and
authorities. The task force could take a stand on issues such as the
network�s practical operation methods and the misuse of the network. I
hope that the results of this task force will support the development of
the network", he says.
For further information, please contact
Johan Helsingius
Oy Penetic Ab
tel. +358 0400 2605
e-mail: [email protected]