4 ms·
Yes, exactly. There's never been any case law on the issue, but in the ideal theoretical world, exit node operators would get the same protections from what the
by tych0 14y ago
Yes, exactly. There's never been any case law on the issue, but in the ideal theoretical world, exit node operators would get the same protections from what their users do that ISPs do.
Unfortunately, since we're often a single guy with no legal entity, we are not afforded such protections by default. I've been running an exit node since 2005, and I've had to switch ISPs numerous times because of abuse coming out of the node. I've even had my hardware physically confiscated when network administrators couldn't figure out what kind of traffic was coming out of it.
While I believe in the goals of the Tor project, I am not really interested in being the guy who has to set the precedent here, so I don't run my exit node in the US any more. If history is any indication it would be a long legal battle to set such a precedent.
See https://www.torproject.org/eff/tor-legal-faq.html.en https://www.torproject.org/eff/tor-legal-faq.html.en for more discussion on the topic.
- ufmace 14y agoI would think that in any decent courtroom, then eventually would, since those same protections apply to forum operators, chat rooms, picture sharing sites, etc. But I don't blame you at all for not wanting to be the test case, since that would probably be rather expensive and likely to disrupt your personal life. Your ISP is obviously an ISP, and most law enforcement agencies understand that and that it means that if something dirty comes through there, then an employee of the ISP most likely didn't do it. But if you're using your home PC as an exit node... most agencies probably have no idea what Tor is, and would assume that you personally were doing whatever came through it, and would commence with the whole search, seizure, and media circus before they figured it out.