Re: [tor-relays] Registration of a Tor node at the German Bundesnetzagentur

[Moritz Bartl <moritz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 06.01.2013 21:01, Eugen Leitl wrote:
>>> Whereas service providers are bound to the Telemediengesetz:
>>> http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/tmg/
>>> Most interesting for exit operators within German borders are:
>>> §8 - no liability for forwarded content (compare §512a DMCA USA)
> Don't forget http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/St%C3%B6rerhaftung
> The Freifunk guys are also affected, and fighting it
> http://freifunkstattangst.de/
> http://www.taz.de/!95330/
> etc.

Again: We are talking about two completely different worlds here. One is
providing telecommunications services, the other is providing telemedia
services.

"Störerhaftung", something I find hard to translate but I am sure exists
in English-speaking countries also, is "just" the general legal concept
of "you can be made liable if assisting in crimes".

Freifunk is in so far "affected" *not* because any law or judge says so,
but because in Germany, lawyers can write Abmahnungen, scary letters
coming with a proposed fee to pay for the "crime commited". Most people
think anything coming from a lawyer must be "proper", and usually pay
the fee instead of arguing against it. In the case of Freifunk,
providing open wireless access, it is a complex situation. Freifunk is a
lot of single individuals trying to build open wireless networks in
their own cities. It's completely decentralized, up to the (stupid)
point of having different firmwares for routers in every city. People
become active in Freifunk often for very short time spans, and "old
wisdom" is not conserved. I can not know if the situation has changed
since everything is so decentralized, but at least until some time ago
most of the Freifunk firmwares suggested to share your own Internet
access with other Freifunk users (and users of your open AP). For one,
most access providers don't allow you to share your network in the first
place, so that is a TOS violation. Second, and now we're "near Tor
waters again", the process of finding the "culprit" is to ask the
upstream provider for customer data, and then send the bill to that
customer.

So far, there has not been a single LEGAL CASE made against Freifunk or
anyone else deliberately operating an open wireless network. People are
scared, and are UNSURE if "Störerhaftung" applies to them, that's why
they want "laws changed". In my opinion, there is no need for any change
in law at all.

I have yet to watch the 29c3 talk about it [1], but from what I heard
talking to some Freifunk people that lawyer was also mistaken on some
things.

[1] https://events.ccc.de/congress/2012/Fahrplan/events/5164.en.html ,
in German

-- 
Moritz Bartl
https://www.torservers.net/
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