Holy Bandwidth Batman, have our state legislators lost their mind? Virtual Private Networks are a wonderful technology that allow you to securely telecommute — that is connect to your network at the office, from home.
However, similar my last post and according to SlashDot, it appears lawmakers in Michigan, whom I can only assume are being lobbied at a local level by the recording industry, are now passing laws that would make it illegal to possess, use, etc. “any communication device to receive … any communication service without the express consent or express authorization of the communication service provider” or “to conceal … from any communication service provider … the existence or place of origin or destination of any communication.”
So for those of you in Michigan — as one commet on SlashDot put it:
- Run a proxy server at home and connect to it via ssl so that my employer can’t tell what web pages I visit at work.
- SSH chaining – Use ssh to log into a remote computer and use ssh to log into another computer since this makes both endpoints unaware of the address of the other.
- Use a remailer as a whistleblower. A remailer stips all headers off a message before sending it out to a new specified sender. This provides anonymous mail which is important for people who are afraid of retribution if the note could be traced back.
- Post to slashdot anonymously.
I would add to this list sending encrypted emails to missionaries in countries where Bibles and Christianity are illegal, as well as pastors connecting to the office network from home.
March 30, 2003 at 7:23 am
Don’t you guys have a constitution that deals with those sort of things?
March 30, 2003 at 11:44 pm
Good thing I live in Missouri.
That is simply crazy!
February 21, 2004 at 4:29 pm
I guess that would mean you couldn’t block Caller ID either!