FC: Responses to White House wanting to trace Net users

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

The forthcoming report at issue (nearly 3,000 downloads so far):
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/unlawfulconduct.html

The full slashdot.org thread:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/03/05/2157257&mode=thread

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http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=00/03/05/2157257&cid=98
Attempt to weaken Privacy Protection Act (Score:3, Informative)
by Animats (slashdot-replies () animats com) on Monday March 06, @12:41PM EST

Uh oh. This is a call to weaken the Privacy Protection Act of 1980. That's 
the law that made it possible for Steve Jackson Games to win against the 
Secret Service.

The Privacy Protection Act of 1980 provides extra protections agains 
searches and seizures for "publishers". A "publisher" is defined as "a 
person reasonably believed to have a purpose to disseminate to the public a 
newspaper, book, broadcast, or other similar form of public communication". 
When Congress wrote this (under pressure, incidentally, from the commercial 
press), they didn't forsee that the number of publishers was about to 
increase substantially. Anyone with a web site is a publisher under this 
law, and gets extra protections against arbitrary search and seizure. Some 
law enforcement units hate this.

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> From: "Thomas Leavitt" <thomasleavitt () hotmail com>
> To: declan () well com
> Subject: Re: FC: White House report says government wants to trace Net users
> Date: Mon, 06 Mar 2000 14:22:33 PST
>
> 'Police should be able to determine the source of hacker attacks or 
> "anonymous emails that contain bomb threats," states the 200 KB document 
> prepared by a high-level working group chaired by Attorney General Janet Reno.'
>
> They are delusional... this will never be achieved... was there no one who 
> understands how the Internet works on this committee? The Internet is 
> inherently not secureable... even if, somehow, you could forge an 
> international consensus on a standard means of 
> identification/authentication, you would have to issue every single person 
> (and Internet connected object) in the world some form of unspoofable 
> authentication token and require it's use whenever a computer terminal is 
> accessed... and then embed a requirement for referencing that 
> authentication through every layer of every protocol... and ensure that 
> every token was accounted for (as people die, objects get replaced or 
> destroyed or otherwise altered, people get different grades of access).
>
> It is ludicrous to even contemplate... the thought gives me a headache... 
> you would have to throw out just about every computer in existence... this 
> is not the PSTN... the data logging requirements alone would give 
> nightmares... GTE just ordered 15 Sun E10000's for it's on-line billing 
> database... imagine the overhead and costs imposed by a requirement to 
> seriously track activities on the Internet... migrane is not the word... 
> not to mention the privacy implications...
>
> Almost makes me want to quit being an entreprenuer and go to Washington 
> and bang heads until someone gets a clue!
>
> Thomas

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> Date: Mon, 06 Mar 2000 08:47:25 -0800
> To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>...
> From: David Honig <honig () sprynet com>
> Subject: Re: White House report says government wants to trace Net users
>
> When everyone is a publisher, publishers lose rights?
>
>
> At 07:48 AM 3/6/00 -0500, Declan McCullagh wrote:
> >The forthcoming report:
> >   http://www.politechbot.com/docs/unlawfulconduct.html
>
>                      Congress should consider
>                      approving a law to remove some
>                      privacy protections from
>                      journalists and publishers. "With
>                      the advent of the Internet and
>                      widespread computer use, almost
>                      any computer can be used to
>                      'publish' material," says the draft
>                      document, which also
>                      recommends reduced privacy
>                      rights for cable modem users.

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