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What's next? If someone walks across my lawn with a backpack full of child porn DVDs I'll be liable for aiding a felon? I'm sure the authorities would agree tha
by Irregardless 14y ago
What's next? If someone walks across my lawn with a backpack full of child porn DVDs I'll be liable for aiding a felon? I'm sure the authorities would agree that's absurd, yet it's fundamentally identical to this case.
- pavel_lishin 14y agoWouldn't a closer analogy be someone suing FedEx because you used them to ship a DVD of child pornography?
- finnw 14y agoI think a combination of the two would be a better analogy: A complete stranger knocks on your door and asks you if it's ok for FedEx to deliver an unmarked parcel of DVDs to your house, and he will collect them from you later. You do not know his name or address. The package arrives. You open it and examine the DVDs, but find that they are encrypted. You pass them on as agreed. Next day the feds knock on your door, saying they have a tip-off that some child porn, bomb-making manuals and stolen bank account details were delivered to your address. You tell them exactly what happened. They seize your laptop and search it for said materials, but find nothing incriminating. Have you committed a crime? I hope not (in both cases) but at the same time I think if the tor exit node operator is protected from prosecution for illegal material passing through the node, then the person passing on the mysterious package should have exactly the same protection.
- joepie91 14y agoThe validity of that analogy strongly depends on whether local activists make a habit of passing packages with encrypted contents through your place, to avoid prosecution of a tyrannical government.