Re: Commercial tor offering?

[Praedor Atrebates <praedor@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Thursday 04 December 2008 11:54:51 OgnenD wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I am sure someone had digested this before but what would be some issues
> with purchasing (say) twenty different boxes around the USA with good pipes
> and allowing people to use them as tor relays/exit nodes (while charging a
> monthly fee for it)? The way I see it, greatest obstacle to using tor every
> day is speed, but I might be wrong.

A couple things:  such KNOWN and set boxes would be subject to taps (probably 
wouldn't matter much if they are relays but it becomes a potential problem if 
they are exits).

Second, I believe (correct if wrong) that if you, a private citizen, are 
donating your system for use as a relay/tor server you have no real or even 
potential legal "obligation" to keep logs for presentation to authorities when 
they ask for them (with a bogus non-warrant FBI "National Security Letter" for 
instance).  If you are now a fee-for-use entity (basically commercial) you are 
potentially subject to such nonsense.

The point of tor isn't to lock people out by charging for service, it is to 
act as a totally open access system for ALL people regardless of economic 
status.  Charging locks out a lot of people, especially in foreign countries 
with naughty governments and shitty economic situations.