Re: No data retention in germany for donated services

Could it be argued that someone participating in a peer-to-peer file sharing system is also donating their services? Thus, those in Germany who would retain their data in order to make a case against copyright infringers would be breaking German law. Any thoughts?

From: Sven Anderson <sven@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: or-talk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, November 24, 2008 10:25:08 AM
Subject: No data retention in germany for donated services

Hi,

Karsten N. just sent to the German exitnodes list a link to an article, which is very convincing and legally well-founded (see below). It explains that any service that is being donated to the public, that is, without taking money or any other return service (like advertisements) for it, is _not_ obliged to retain any connection data! Furthermore, since there is no gray area, who isn't obliged to retain data is not _allowed_ to retain data, and can be charged with a fee up to 10.000 EUR for doing so! Since Tor is without doubts such a donated service, this turns the tables, and it is clearly a risk for a Tor operator in Germany to retain any data. (You would have to proof that you're financing your Tor node by a return service of the users and therefore are obliged to retain connection data. ;-) )

Thanks for that link, Karsten!

Best regards,

Sven

Anfang der weitergeleiteten E-Mail:

> Von: "Karsten N." <tor-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Datum: 24. November 2008 10:26:02 MEZ
> An: exitnodes@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Betreff: keine VDS für unentgeltliche Dienste
>
> Hallo Tor-Admin,
>
> bei datenspeicherung.de gibt es einen interessanten Aufsatz zu
> Speicherpflichten aus §113a TKG (VDS).
>
> http://www.daten-speicherung.de/index.php/keine-vorratsdatenspeicherung-fuer-unentgeltliche-dienste/
>
> Demnach dürfen Tor-Nodes (ausdrücklich erwähnt!) *keine* Daten speichern.
>
> Karsten N.
>