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Re: Need help with MPAA threats


Am 15.12.2008 um 12:57 schrieb Hannah Schroeter:
After all, a running Exitnode relaying on the "standard" ports like HTTP seems to be (for me) better than a completely switched off node because 
of legal troubles regarding file sharing.
But in the end, the situation is all the same for HTTP(S) as for BT. BT 
can (and *is*) used for legal content. E.g. I've already pulled (and
redistributed, i.e. contributed) OpenBSD *legally* via bittorrent (of
course not via tor). OTOH, you can use http(s) for illegal content, too. 
Especially via ssl.
Yes, in theory everything is possible with every protocol, as long as _some_ information is getting through. So it makes no sense to discuss theoretic possibilities. We should rather discuss the reality, that is the actual usage patterns. And it's matter of fact that, if you restrict your exit policy, the MPAA complaints just stop, while the investigations regarding crimes like financial fraud and child porn are all related to port 80 traffic. So both protocols are used for crimes, but different types. 


And, if I see things right, the bandwidth argument doesn't compute.
IIRC, only the client<->tracker traffic is relayed via tor, and that's
not the mass traffic of the actual big files. That's different when you 
pull big files via http(s) which you keep allowing (and big files also
encompasses just bloated web sites with tons of inline and background
images, or even flash stuff or whatever).
How can you claim "only the client<->tracker traffic is relayed via tor"? Most users don't have it configured that way I suppose, and that is backed up by my personal experience. There are a lot of Bittorrent file transfers over Tor if you allow arbitrary ports. 

Sven

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