Re: Esther Dyson on Remailers

[Dave Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>]

Just for record, Esther's position is NOT necessarily EFFs. 


At 01:39 PM 9/1/96 -0400, Duncan Frissell wrote:
>At 06:52 AM 9/1/96 -0400, Dave Farber wrote:
>>EFF does not, to my knowledge, (and I am a Board Member) have an
>>organizational view on this issue. There are a lot of different views and
>>each member of EFF has their own view that they can and will state as
>>private people. The tendency of the Press to label people with organizations
>>affiliation ship gives the impression of organizational views. For example I
>>certainly don't speak for the University of Pennsylvania when I say thing to
>>the newspapers.
>>
>>Dave
>>
>
>
>At CFP in '95 in SF, Esther expressed the view that there was a place on the
>Net for an anonymous ghetto (my words not hers) where people could be
>anonymous but that most of the net would involve traceability of
>transactions so that people could be held accountable and that businesses
>and individuals would want to know who they were dealing with for payment
>and accountability reasons.
>
>I am not stating her position well I'm sure but it was clear that she
>thought that non-anonymity would be the rule not because it was mandated but
>just because Net actors would want it that way.  A short quote would not
>allow anyone to understand her full position.
>
>If she believes that anonymity would be rejected voluntarily for practical
>reasons then that is just a prediction of a market not a conclusion.  Most
>on this list would have no objection to making a prediction though we might
>disagree with it.
>
>Just as Esther predicted that the net would end copyright, we might predict
>that the net combined with immediate settlement payment systems might reduce
>if not eliminate the need for "positive ID."  
>
>DCF
>
>
>