On Wed, Nov 16, 2005 at 09:56:33AM -0500, Jeffrey F. Bloss wrote: > I don't believe this is the case though. These three or four Tor clients are > being used as access points to the existing, free Tor network we all know and > love. They're using the network's anonymity, cover traffic, and the > bandwidth donated by node owners, for profit. If it were a private network > scenario I agree... it wouldn't be an issue at all. Allright, these are sleazy scumbags. > I would certainly hope that at the very *least* a for-profit Tor node would > function as a public node, and help move "normal" Tor traffic along with > traffic generated by its customers. The problem is that you can't guarantee a given latency and throughput with a network outside your control. Of course, one could also sell VServers connected with OpenVPN, with Tor/Privoxy which would participate on the network, when in use. Getting users to pay for the traffic they're not generating, even if it's relatively cheap (say, 0.20 EUR/GByte) won't be too easy, though. > But as you say this is mostly a matter of personal ethics. Some people have > them, some don't. > > I for one would be willing to pay for private network access, by the way. :) I Do you think there's a business potential in a OpenVPN-based darknet? > can see a serious gain in throughput from a network of machines with > commercial, more "fully bi-directional" connections. And given enough nodes Root server prices are quite low these days, as is traffic, and the trend is further down. > of course, it would be nearly as secure as a free public supported version > with the notable exception that a commercial entity is a single point of > compromise. The conspiracy nut in me could envision a scenario where an owner A few commercial entities peering traffic (I'll route yours if you route mine) would be quite immune against that attack. I'm a bit pessimistic about users being ready to pay for commercial anonymizing services. We'll see.. > might be served a warrant with a gag order that effectively compromised the > entire network in one fell swoop. :( -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org";>leitl</a> ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.leitl.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE
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