Re: How to ban many IPs?

[phobos@xxxxxxxxxx]

On Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 09:05:00AM -0700, kitsune.or@xxxxxxxxx wrote 1.5K bytes in 38 lines about:
: Matt LaPlante wrote:
: > Personally, I run my tor node as transport only (non-exit).  I can't
: > risk opening myself up to illegal activities by running an exit node,
: > but I figure the least I can do is provide decent transport as the
: > middle-man, and let the people running exit nodes concern themselves
: > with the legality of the activity.
: > 
: (much snippage)
: 
: I'm the same way; since I'm only a private citizen with limited
: resources, I can't risk a potential legal battle - even if I were likely
: to win such a battle. It just costs too much.

These are called chilling effects.  Rather than directly attack
something, you create an environment that discourages its existence. 

I run an exit node with the default policy.  I, too, deal with the abuse
complaints and DMCA take down notices.  A couple of emails with copy and
pasted responses to these things is worth it for me to provide the
service for others.  I've even been known to get on the phone and talk
to people.  Smart ISPs realize they aren't at risk from Tor nodes.
Having an intelligent email, showing them
https://www.torproject.org/eff/tor-legal-faq and
https://www.torproject.org/eff/tor-dmca-response.html are more than most
care to investigate.  After 5 years, my node is still online. 

A while ago, someone on or-talk said that 20% of their traffic was
"illegal" in their opinion.  My first thought was, "wow, 80% of the
traffic is people like me using Tor."  The vast majority of Tor users
are normal people doing normal things.  Much like the larger Internet,
bad people exist and will attempt to exploit something for their gain.
That's life.  The overall usage and existence of Tor is a great thing.
Normal people use Tor, https://www.torproject.org/torusers.  

I believe the legal risks to Tor in the USA are low, given the safe
harbor provisions of the DMCA; which covers Tor and the ISP.  Other
countries, such as Germany, the UK, and possibly Australia, have possible
risks approaching.  As Roger states,
https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tor,-germany,-and-data-retention, Tor
is trying to figure out next steps.  More help here would be great.

-- 
Andrew