At 10:37 AM -0800 2/29/00, Fisher Mark wrote: >PUBLISHING WITHOUT PERISHING >The Internet has become a haven for political and social >activists seeking broader audiences for their controversial >views. Yet some, living in oppressive environments such as >China, Singapore, and the Middle East have come to fear reprimand >from extremist religious groups or from local governments, which >often filter Internet content to ensure social order. To enable >these activists to distribute their writings safely, an Internet >startup has formed to allow authors to publish sensitive >information under the cloak of anonymity. The online bookstore, >Booklocker.com, offers official page forms to preserve an >author's anonymity, and site creator Angela Adair-Hoy says she >will release the authors names only under court order. "...only under court order." Gee, how comforting. Oh, and _whose_ court order? The U.S. has its own long list of "denied persons" and "terorrists" (U.S.speak for poltiical criminals, which we don't have, doncha know). Arghh, it's just another centralized, government-friendly solution. Perfectly fine fully anonymous publishing schemes have existed for many years. The Usenet, for example, with anonymous remailers. (If the scheme is to get some coin for one's anonymous screeds, this is tougher. However, not a lot of political pamphlets published in Sudan or Zimbabwe or even a large country like Russia ever generate much cash for authors. For lots of reasons, including widespread piracy. Online versions will be even more vulnerable to "buy once, copy many" approaches.) --Tim May ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, "Cyphernomicon" | black markets, collapse of governments.
