Re: How far is to far?

[tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)]

Mark (mark@coombs.anu.edu.au) writes:

> Maybe it's not in the spirit of this mailing group but what of the question
> of purposeful abuse of the anon mailers/newsposters? Say for instance some
> person posts either a sh*tload of garbage to every known group, flooding
> the USENET or a more personal attack whereby they send out anonymously 
> information that was so fundamentally personal to someone they could
> possibly react very badly....
> 
> What if someone posted some top secret information and the various three
> letter acronyms all went out for someone's blood.

Abuses of various sorts will surely occur. The same thing happens with
the postal systems of the world ("blackmail," poison pen letters,
ransom demands, extortion threats, child pornography, sedition, etc.),
with the phone systems (ditto above), freely available Xerox machines,
and so on. Computers and computers nets will be no different.

A difference is that the authorities are trying to stop all such
abuses on computer nets and all such things they dislike by banning
privacy and by restricting use. This is a doomed effort.

> As a few people have mentioned they would *like* the opportunity to use
> an anon system but the initial step of creating and running it isnt so
> appealing due to the fundamental dangers of it.
> 
> Most people would respect such systems but you find one really rotten or
> immature loser that will use it for there own anti-social ends.

This is where "reputations" and "kill" files come to the fore.
Immature flames and other minor crimes are best dealt with by
"down-checking" the reputation of the digital pseudonym of the
offender. (Completely anonymous postings, where no "handle" or digital
pseudonym is provided are likely to be "killed" by most readers.)

For more serious "crimes" perpetrated by crypto users, well, nothing's
perfect. As I said above, they have other channels to use as well.

An advantage of the digital pseudonym nets is that these criminals
don't know who you are or where you live (a la "True Names") and hence
can't perpetrate certain crimes. 

When in cypherspace, be careful!

--Tim


-- 
..........................................................................
Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
tcmay@netcom.com       | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
408-688-5409           | knowledge, reputations, information markets, 
W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA  | black markets, collapse of governments.
Higher Power: 2^756839 | PGP Public Key: awaiting Macintosh version.



-- 
..........................................................................
Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
tcmay@netcom.com       | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
408-688-5409           | knowledge, reputations, information markets, 
W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA  | black markets, collapse of governments.
Higher Power: 2^756839 | PGP Public Key: awaiting Macintosh version.