Re: Tor Defense Fund...an idea.

[Andrew Del Vecchio <firefox-gen@xxxxxxxxxx>]

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This may very well be true in general. However, consider these two
important aspects:

1. Government=force, and if you can get away with shutting up your
opponents AND stealing most of or everything they have, why not? For
them, it kills two birds with one stone, and as we all know, it's
nearly impossible to get any of it back after the fact. This factor is
important not exclusively for Tor people, but for political critics in
general.

2. More directly related to your analysis (which I believe is true as
a general principle), we must recall that in today's connected world,
the easiest way to get someone and take them down is to review their
many public and allegedly private records, such as bank transaction
information, utility bills, health forms (especially in more
socialized nation-states), etc. I don't pretend to argue that this
will instantly make you immune to the legal railroading that some
operators have experienced over the months, but it does make it quite
a bit more time consuming and expensive. After all, we're dealing with
incompetent, lazy bureaucrats here that would rather eat donuts than
bust people if it means having to do some actual work. They rely on
goading ISPs, banks, etc. into forking over information. This is an
even more acute risk in the US since the (un)PATRIOT Act passed.
Here's an example:

I have an 'invisible' LLC whose "principle place of business" is
registered as being in the Canary Islands. I organized it so that I
could get set up a wireless Internet account with a major US telcom. I
paid for it with an anonymous prepaid debit card. As a result, no one
knows where I live, nor do they have my SSN, as my LLC's EIN# was used
instead (also not connected to my personal info). You could use this
basic process for a variety of needs, but I used this one, as it's
germane to the basic problem at hand: "How can we help legally protect
Tor router operators?".

~Andrew

- --
Frivolous lawsuits. Unlawful government seizures. It's a scary world
out there!
Protect your privacy, keep what you earn, and even earn more income at:
http://www.KeepYourAssets.net/?andrew


Anothony Georgeo wrote:
> --- Andrew Del Vecchio <firefox-gen@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> The bottom line here is that if the self-proclaimed
>> "authorities" can't find/don't know you own anything
>
>> of value in the first place, they're much less
> likely
>> to seek you out as the next great "example" to be
>> held up and publically beaten to scare the public
>> (metaphorically speaking).
>
> Well, in terms of the Tor network I believe the
> authorities concider the possibility of shutting down
> the network to be of utmost value.
>
> IMO the authorities in this case don't really care if
> an operator has anything of value as they seek to
> prevent their citizens from gaining anonymity.
>
> Anogeorgeo
>
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