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Re: Hetzner

thus Eugen Leitl spake:

On Thu, Jun 18, 2009 at 05:52:08AM +0200, Timo Schoeler wrote:

So am I, running a middle node. However, for months now I'm thinking of
reverting it to an exit node as the situation that everyone runs a
middle node, but no one dares to run an exit node just lets TOR die.


This is great, but please be careful. Depending on the Bundesland
customs vary, and it's pretty clear that online anonymity in Germany
is firmly in the crosshairs.


Hence the discussion, I guess... ;)


Eugen's mail:

| I've used to run a Tor exit with Hetzner a couple years ago, which
| resulted in several tet-a-tetes with the local (Bavaria) police.

sounded very interesting. What was the reason for their visits?


Two cases of complaints (petty online fraud), with the local cop acting as a proxy
for the public persecutor, taking up the protocol. I denied the charges of
course, and explained how Tor works, brought printouts, including a list of
nodes and my node being listed.

One case was a fax from BKA accusing me in trafficking
in pedophilia. I decided that I don't really want to have my family deal with a search warrant in the wee hours, and switched to middleman. 
No complaints so far.
Hard stuff. But since 'they' have those 'weapons' against running an exit node, what can we do (technologically, politically, ...) against it, to provide free speech in future? 


The problem remains: No exit nodes, no reliable/fast/stable/anonymous
TOR. This has to be fixed, and the urgency to fix this gets stronger
every day (see geopolitical stuff, yallayalla).