[tor-relays] Sitevalley is no longer Tor-friendly

[Tom Ritter <tom@xxxxxxxxx>]

Sending this out, as I suspect I am not the only person running a node
on SiteValley, as they have pretty good bandwidth for pretty cheap.

I had inquired in the beginning if they allowed Tor, and they said
yes, but if we get too many abuse complaints we'll shut it down.  So
maybe 4 or 5 abuse complaints later they did indeed give me the
ultimatum to shut it down or get shut down.  So I made them give me a
new IP address, and made it into a middle node.  (The new IP was
because I was thinking of making it a bridge.)

Well this morning they told me TOR (their caps, not mine ;) is not
allowed at all.  I argued with them a little bit, and TLDR you might
be able to get a partial refund.  I'd much rather have had the
bandwidth though.  I'm not in a position to run high-maintence nodes,
so this being a pretty fast, maintenance-once-every-three-months
dedicated-to-Tor node - I was pretty happy with it.



Our conversation:

-----------------
Your VPS X.Y.Z.W has been suspended due to running tor anonymyzer
which is forbidden according to our Acceptable Use Policy, paragraph 8
"Prohibited Activities"
http://www.sitevalley.com/acceptable-use-policy/.

In order to have your VPS unsuspended you need to agree to remove tor
from it within 24 hours after the unsuspension. Failure to abide by
this provision may result in termination of your account.

We have to warn you that on receiving next abuse your VPS will be
terminated without without prior notice.
-----------------
If you refer to Contact Form ID #YXX-XXXXyou'll see that I
confirmed with you before I purchased the VPS that allowing Tor was
acceptable.  I dealt with the 3 or 4 abuse complaints you sent me
promptly, and in #FSA-XXXXI agreed to stop using the server as a
Tor Exit Node, despite our previous conversation.

The machine in question is running Tor in a non-Exit mode. Traffic
from it does not appear to originate from the server, and it merely
passes traffic within the Tor network.  It cannot generate abuse
complaints from third parties when running in this mode.  Have you
received an abuse complaint about this server?  If so, can you forward
it to me so I can investigate how it may have been created?
-----------------
The node was found during system audit. May be you know that running
tor (in any mode) is strictly forbidden by our Acceptable Use Policy
because it can be used by third-parties for forwarding hidden illegal
traffic. Unfortunately, we can start your VPS only in case you agree
to remove tor.
-----------------
I'll put aside the fact that your routers, DNS resolvers and every
router of the internet also carries hidden illegal traffic, and that
Tor is agnostic to that traffic as your routers are.

I did NOT know that running Tor was not allowed because I ASKED you if
I could, and you told me it was fine as long as it did not generate
Abuse Complaints.  Considering your AUP is so broad it can be made to
cover anything you don't like, the only reasonable thing someone can
do is ask if you'll allow something - which I did.  I'd like a
pro-rated refund of my remaining service, as you have misrepresented
your services and your Acceptable Use Policy to me - if I had known
you wouldn't allow me to use my bandwidth in a way that was not
illegal in any jurisdiction, did not generate any abuse complaints or
additional work for you, and that you would shut down my service after
I confirmed what I was doing was okay with you - I would never have
paid you in the first place.
-----------------
Ticket YXX-XXXX dates from 26 Mar 2012. Our Terms of Service are
subject to change and, according to our Terms of Service
http://www.sitevalley.com/terms/ posting of such changed Terms and
Conditions on the site constitutes notice of such changes to you
(although we may choose additional types of notice). Our policy
regarding TOR usage has been changed and as for now, running TOR
applications on our servers is forbidden. We are very sorry that this
provision prevents you from using our services in the manner you need
to use it.

All things considered, we can offer you two options:

1. We unsuspend your VPS, you remove TOR from it, let us know and we check it.
or
2. We issue the partial refund and terminate your account with us.

Please rest assured that we value you as our customer and would like
to continue doing business with you.
Also, please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this
misunderstanding has been the reason of.
-----------------
Thank you Dmitriy.  Please issue the partial refund and terminate the account.
-----------------

-tom
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