
                                PRESS RELEASE
                                30.8.1996


Johan Helsingius closes his Internet remailer

Johan Helsingius from Helsinki has decided to close his Internet
remailer. The so-called anonymous remailer is the most popular
remailer in the world, with over half a million users.

"I will close down the remailer for the time being because the legal
issues governing the whole Internet in Finland are yet undefined. The
legal protection of the users needs to be clarified. At the moment the
privacy of Internet messages is judicially unclear."

The idea of an anonymous remailer is to protect the confidentiality of its
users' identity. The remailer itself does not store messages but serves as a
channel for message transmission. The remailer forwards messages
without the identity of the original sender.

Finland is one of the leading countries in Internet usage. Therefore all
decisions and changes made in Finland arouse wide international interest.

"I have developed and maintained the remailer in my free time for over
three years now. It has taken up a lot of time and energy. Internet has
changed a lot in these three years - now there are dozens of remailers in
the world, which offer similar services."

"I have also personally been a target because of the remailer for three
years. Unjustified accusations affect both my job and my private life"
says Johan Helsingius.

He surmises that the closing of the remailer will raise a lot of discussion
among the Internet community. "These remailers have made it possible
for people to discuss very sensitive matters, such as domestic violence,
school bullying or human rights issues anonymously and confidentially
on the Internet. To them the closing of the remailer is a serious problem",
says Helsingius.

Child porn claims proven false

Last Sunday's issue of the English newspaper Observer claimed that the
remailer has been used for transmitting child pornography pictures. The
claims have been investigated by the Finnish police. Observer's claims
have been found groundless.

Police sergeant Kaj Malmberg from the Helsinki Police Crime Squad is
specialized in investigating computer crimes. He confirms that already a
year ago Johan Helsingius restricted the operations of his remailer so that
it cannot transmit pictures.

"The true amount of child pornography in Internet is difficult to assess,
but one thing is clear: We have not found any cases where child porn
pictures were transmitted from Finland", Kaj Malmberg says.

Ground rules need to be clarified

There are several large network projects going on in Finland at the
moment, such as the TIVEKE project run by the Ministry of
Communications and the Information Society Forum project run by the
Ministry of Finance. Johan Helsingius is participating the work of these
projects. Projects assess the political and social issues of networks and
the impact of these issues in the long run. These projects also need the
support of daily, practical work to help short-term decision-making.

Johan Helsingius is now taking an initiative in the development of the
daily network rules. He wants to set up a task force to discuss the
practical problems related to ethical and civil rights issues in connection
with the Internet.

"I will try to set up a task force which will include Internet
experts together with representatives of civic organizations and
authorities. The task force could take a stand on issues such as the
network's practical operation methods and the misuse of the network. I
hope that the results of this task force will support the development of
the network", he says.

For further information, please contact

Johan Helsingius
Oy Penetic Ab
tel. +358 0400 2605
e-mail: julf@penet.fi

