I'd be more inclined to think these spam assassin fellas/"evil doer
finders" just parsed the exit-node files and decide WHOOPIDY-DO I did my
job! Over-zealous punks trying to get their lists larger than their
competitor.
OVH appears to have based these accusations on what other websites have
said about my IP addresses, and not a single actual complaint against
the relays I run.
But I could be wrong.
Either way... It's unfortunate.
OVH has never contacted me for anything, except to notify me of
connections to the manager.
For clarification from their email to me where they showed positive
feelings toward Tor, here is my original email to them about me running
those relays.
The first paragraph butters them up, and the second last paragraph
attempts to show that I wanted to run clean, safe relays.
-------------------------------------------------------------
"Greetings,
I'm a current customer with two VPS servers with you, so far you've been
awesome! I've never met anyone who has heard of you, that that is beyond
shocking. Your prices are better than almost everyone, your service is
superior, and I'm pretty sure your claims regarding hardware performance
are the closest I've ever experienced to truth.
Alright now to the fun stuff.
Section 1)
I have read online that you are accommodating to users setting up Tor
*middle* relays on VPS accounts, and as such I recently set one up.
However, that wasn't necessarily the brightest decision on my part. Can
you confirm that you let customers run Tor *middle* relays? These are
the none-exiting relays.
Given the recent activities around the world, I'd like to set several
more relays up. If you do let customers install Tor, can they be
installed on VPS Classic accounts?
Here is a description of the Tor platform,
(https://www.torproject.org/eff/tor-dmca-response.html.en)
...
Tor is network software that helps users to enhance their privacy,
security, and safety online. It does not host any content. Rather, it is
part of a network of nodes on the Internet that simply pass packets
among themselves before sending them to their destinations, just as any
Internet intermediary does. The difference is that Tor tunnels the
connections such that no hop can learn both the source and destination
of the packets, giving users protection from nefarious snooping on
network traffic. The result is that, unlike most other Internet traffic,
the final IP address that the recipient receives is not the IP address
of the sender. Tor protects users against hazards such as harassment,
spam, and identity theft. Initial development of Tor, including
deployment of a public-use Tor network, was a project of the U.S. Naval
Research Laboratory, with funding from ONR and DARPA. (For more on Tor,
see https://www.torproject.org/.) I hope, as an organization committed
to protecting the privacy of its customers, you'll agree that this is a
valuable technology.
...
Section 2)
I've read online nothing but ambiguity regarding exit relays. My current
understanding is that if we run them, we risk the account being
terminated. Would you terminate the single VPS server, or my entire
account with all of my VPSs?
If this somewhat murky situation is the case, would you be willing to
assist me with minor activities in locking down the server? If I run
exit relays, I want to use rather extreme exit policies, locking out
most ports, and only allowing certain traffic through. I don't want to
create a conduit for illicit downloading of videos, software, games,
etc. And child pornography. Surely there has to be something your
SysAdmins can do to help stop that. Blacklists, I suspect. So locking
out that type of traffic is important both for my sensibilities, your
network, and our legal safety.
I'm more than willing, and interesting in discussing this further with
you. In a world where free speech is under attack, we need to protect
those that speak up.
Let me know.
Kind regards,
Matt"
-------------------------------------------------------------
I tried... I tried to be as helpful as possible in explaining what Tor
is and does, and I tried to start a positive dialog and relationship
with them. The numerous telephone conversations I've had with them were
always quite positive and friendly. I was always assured they would
contact me first, let me deal with the complaint, etc...
But I've come to realize this wasn't because of any complaint. Some
"john" at OVH saw my IP addresses on a set of lists, most likely
siphoned from the publicly available exit-relay lists, and decided I
must be doing something bad.
Because they're no longer talking, most of this is all a guessing game.
How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?
How can you get your t-shirt if you don't run your relay?
Sorry, but that made me smile. :)
Speak Freely
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