On 23.08.2006 at 19:09 Robert Hogan wrote:
"If there was reasonable suspicion of a crime and if the German Code of
Criminal Procedure provided for such an approach in the case in question, it
was quite possible to register the IP addresses of computers, Mr. Weichert
observed."
Umm. So it's only anonymous until they need to find out who you are? Or have I
misunderstood the point?
Unfortunately you haven't. According to the JAP (the anonymizer in question) FAQ [1], JAP servers can be set up to "tag" and log connections from certain source/destination-combinations, when prosecution authorities request it, but apparently resolving past connections ex-post is impossible. This seems to be some trade-off in order to comply with German legislation and not render the program illegal. Which brings up the question of the legal status of Tor servers in Germany. What would happen to a server operator forced by law to log individual future connections, but unable to do so, since Tor doesn't allow it?