Addressing anonymous messages in cyberspace

Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication

Volumn 2, Issue 1, 1996, Pages

  Lee, Gia B ^a  

^a HARVARD LAW SCHOOL   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

COMPUTER CRIME; COPYRIGHTS; COSTS; ELECTRONIC COMMUNITIES; INFORMATION SERVICES; LAW ENFORCEMENT; LAWS AND LEGISLATION; MONITORING; ONLINE SYSTEMS; PROBLEM SOLVING; PUBLIC POLICY; REGULATORY COMPLIANCE; SECURITY OF DATA; SOCIAL ASPECTS;

ANONYMOUS COMMUNICATIONS; CYBERCOMMUNITIES; CYBERSPACES; TYPOGRAPHICAL MESSAGES;

INTERNET;

EID: 3242742592     PISSN: 10836101     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.1996.tb00183.x     Document Type: Review

References (36)

1. When I refer to nationality here, I mean to allude to the possibility of detection of accents.
2. If speakers desire otherwise, however, with the possibility of sending visual images and audio messages, they can choose to reveal more about themselves.
3. See e.g., Daniel Akst, Postcard from Cyberspace: The Cutting Edge, The Helsinki Incident and the Right to Anonymity, L.A. TIMES, Feb. 22, 1995, at D1.
4. Peter H. Lewis, Computer Jokes and Threats Ignite Debate on Anonymity, N.Y. TIMES, Dec. 31, 1994, at 1.4362 U.S. 60 (1960).
5. See e.g., Comment, The Constitutional Right to Anonymity: Free Speech, Disclosure and the Devil, 70 YALE L.J. 1084 (1961); Note, Disclosure as a Legislative Device, 76 HARV. L. REV. 1273 (1963).
6. See e.g., Comment, The Constitutional Right to Anonymity: Free Speech, Disclosure and the Devil, 70 YALE L.J. 1084 (1961); Note, Disclosure as a Legislative Device, 76 HARV. L. REV. 1273 (1963).
7. 1995 WL 227810 (U.S. 1995) (holding unconstitutional a state law that made it a crime to distribute anonymously any "political communication").
8. Two recent works that do give some attention to this topic include Anne Branscomb, Anonymity, Autonomy and Accountability: Challenges to the First Amendment in Cyberspace, 104 YALE L.J. 1639 (1995), and George P. Long, III, Note, Who Are You? Identity and Anonymity in Cyberspace, 55 U. PITT. L. REV. 1177 (1994). Both works focus primarily on how anonymity ought to be preserved online, without satisfactorily examining the justifications for its preservation.
9. Two recent works that do give some attention to this topic include Anne Branscomb, Anonymity, Autonomy and Accountability: Challenges to the First Amendment in Cyberspace, 104 YALE L.J. 1639 (1995), and George P. Long, III, Note, Who Are You? Identity and Anonymity in Cyberspace, 55 U. PITT. L. REV. 1177 (1994). Both works focus primarily on how anonymity ought to be preserved online, without satisfactorily examining the justifications for its preservation.
10. See Note, Disclosure as a Legislative Device, 76 HARV. L. REV. 1273 (1963) (classifying the effects of disclosure into these three categories).
11. See Robert B. Charles, Outside Counsel: Computer Libel Questions in Stratton v.Prodigy, N.Y. L. J., Dec 13, 1994, at 1. In this case, the readers did not know that the person was actually anonymous; he had used someone else's user name.
12. John H. Ellard & Douglas D. Bates, Evidence for the Role of the Justice Motive in Status Generalization Processes, SOC. JUST. RES., June 1990, at 115, 117.
13. See Fred L. Strodtbeck, Rita M. James & Charles Hawkins, Social Status in Jury Deliberations, 22 AM. SOC. REV. 713 (1957).
14. See Ellard & Bates, supra, note 10, at 116.
15. Of course, the message itself, for example, its command of the English language, may reveal some status characteristics.
16. See Lewis, supra note 3, at 1.
17. See Stacey Anderson, Cyber-Security Bugs UW, CAPITAL TIMES (Madison, Wisconsin)(describing an incident where someone impersonated a professor and sent out a racist message under his name to 20,000 users nationwide).
18. All Things Considered: Lawless Frontiers of Cyberspace Invite Trouble, (National Public Radio broadcast, July 12, 1994).
19. Keith Schneider, Hate Groups Use Tools of the Electronic Trade, N.Y. TIMES, Mar. 13, 1995, at A12.
20. Cf. Megan Garvey, Crossing the Line on the Info Highway: He Put His Ugly Fantasy on the Internet, WASH. POST, Mar. 11, 1995 (describing the story of a college student who described his fantasy of raping a fellow dorm mate on the Internet).
21. Consider, for example, the current trend of "political correctness." Many university students on American campuses today are unwilling to express their ideas for fear that they will be ridiculed or labeled as "politically incorrect."
22. See Lewis, supra note 3, at 1 (discussing, for example, self-identified former members of the Church of Scientology who criticize and post official church documents anonymously because they fear retribution from the Church).
23. Akst, supra note 3, at D1.
24. See Comment, supra note 5, at 1085 (recounting that Hamilton and Madison wrote the Federalist papers; Madison, the Letters of Pacifus defending Washington's proclamation of neutrality; and Chief Justice Marshall, as a "friend of the Republic," a defense of certain Supreme Court decisions).
25. All Things Considered, supra note 16.
26. See Lewis, supra note 3, at 1 ("Hundreds of people each day, for instance, use the cloak of electronic anonymity to share their deepest secrets about drug addition, childhood sexual abuse or other sensitive topics with sympathetic strangers on electronic bulletin boards or computer-network chat rooms.")
27. e.g., Charles, supra note 9, at 1 (alleged libel).
28. The most popular anonymous remailer already does clearly label all of its resent messages as anonymous. See infra notes 31-33 and accompanying text.
29. See Long, supra note 7, at 1202.
30. In his note on anonymity in Cyberspace, George Long incorrectly asserts that "One could 'kill'all messages that are anonymously originated." Id. In fact, one can only kill anonymously sent messages if one knows elements of the anonymous headers in advance.
31. I do not mean to suggest here that being "shielded from responsibility" is necessarily a negative quality. As discussed above, this shield or protection serves important purposes.
32. See Akst, supra note 3, at D1.
33. See id.
34. For example, an address could be "an115@anon.penet.fi".
35. Other anonymous sites include, for example, "alumni.caltech. edu", "soda.berkeley.edu", or "mead.u.washington.edu." See Long, supra note 7, at 1213.
36. It is possible, however, that a hacker would change every header that indicated anonymity to a random header. Cybercops would then have to search for the hacker.