Anonymous web servers

[Hal <hfinney@shell.portal.com>]

[This is somewhat of a follow-up to Black Unicorn's idea about private
web pages a few weeks ago, also motivated by thinking about Ross
Anderson's Eternity service, about which I just posted.]

Right now you can get anonymous web pages at various places.  But
these are basically just regular web pages where you haven't told the
service provider what your name is.  If somebody doesn't like what you
have posted there they may be able to get your pages shut down just as
easily as if you were non-anonymous.

I was thinking about ways to allow more truly anonymous web pages.
The goal would be to allow them to operate even if someone powerful
didn't like them.  I'm not sure the idea I have really works but I
thought I'd lay out some possibilities.

The web is basically a client-server environment.  The server sits
there all the time ready to accept connections from users running
clients (browsers).  The client connects briefly to a web page and
downloads the data for the page.  It disconnects and displays the
data.  Some of the newer technologies have extended this model but
it is the original concept.

The idea I have is to provide a meeting place for anonymous servers
and clients.  There would be a sort of "meta-server" which runs
software which just pairs up interested parties.  The idea is that
both servers and clients would be relatively transient.

Two people would arrange in advance to interact via web protocols, and
agree on a transient URL which they would share.  The client and
server both connect to the "meeting place" host, specifying the magic
name they have agreed on.  The meeting place software would then pair
up connections which shared the same name and allow them to interact
via conventional protocols.  URL's for the meeting place server would
be interpreted in this context rather than simply as file names.

In some ways the role of the "meeting place" software is similar to an
IRC server.  In fact, this concept could be thought of as HTTP over
IRC.

The big question mark is whether the meeting place would be blamed for
the possibly illicit transactions it facilitates.  It can argue that
it didn't know what people are doing (it might require people to use
SSL for their transactions so it doesn't see them).  But in practice
it may be easy for attackers to prove that illegal transactions are
going on (they just arrange to connect to an illicit server and
download incriminating evidence).  It does seem though that IRC,
despite having a reputation as a place where a lot of illegal
transactions occur, manages to keep running, without the servers
taking the blame.  Maybe it is just a matter of having a low enough
profile?

You'd also have a problem if a server, protected by anonymity, decided
that being transient was stupid and arranged to always be ready to
respond to one of the anonymous URL's.  Then there seems effectively
no difference between the "meeting place" with an anonymous server
URL, and an ordinary host with an objectionable file available via
URL.  In each case clients connect and get the same illegal data.

One thing we haven't seen (AFAIK) is anonymous posters offering to
supply illegal data to anyone who asks for it.  Something like "just
post your email address and I'll mail you (anonymously) some Holocaust
revisionism" (or Christian literature, or whatever else may be
banned in your particular jurisdiction).  This is the kind of
application where it would seem that the anonymous web pages would be
effective.  Maybe there is not much demand for it, after all.

Hal