"Tor Node Admin @ SechsNullDrei.org" tor@sechsnulldrei.org wrote:
Hi AJ,
First, thank you for supporting Tor!
Second, you're smart to contact the library, as IT would immediately shut down the idea as they don't want to receive more abuse emails than they already do (I know we did when I worked in academia). An additional resource you may wish to research is the https://libraryfreedomproject.org/ by Alison Mecrina. The resources available on this site speak directly to librarians on such issues. Good luck!
AJ and any others in similar situations, I would add a few comments, beginning with the style of communications with your university library. When you wish to ask for some special consideration, find out whom you need to talk with about your request, and then make an appointment to visit his/her office in person. Sending an email message out of the blue and beginning it with "Heya!" is utterly inappropriate and is not at all likely to get you anywhere. You must act--and write--like an adult, and formality in your initial written communications is essential. They are not going to let someone acting like an ill-mannered adolescent run a server on their department's equipment. If you come across as a responsible adult who makes a good impression and provides a good case for satisfying the request, a case that looks good from the university's point of view, which is to say, convincing them that it would benefit the university in some way, then you may get somewhere with them. If you convince them, however, be prepared to find out that the staff has decided to run the relay itself. The department may well have to run it past the university's legal department. Because you are not acting as a university employee, either or both departments may not be willing to make the university liable for possible consequences of a non-employee's actions. I know that, as a systems programmer at the university here, I would never have let anyone out of our group, much less outside of our department, do anything like running a relay on a machine under my responsibility. I wouldn't have risked having to clean up someone else's mess, and my boss would have been apoplectic at the idea. The security issues would have overwhelmed everything. OTOH, you might still get lucky. It would definitely be worth your time to find out whether the university (e.g., through its computer center or library) or some other individual, department, or college office is already running one or more relays. Faculty members at some universities have been known to get special arrangements to run tor relays, even exits, on university- owned equipment. At some schools, faculty members would not likely even be questioned about it. Note, for example, that many individual faculty members and sometimes even (paid) graduate assistants run web servers to publicize their research and results. Note that any networking staff will want to know how much of the available network capacity your networking program (in this case, tor) would require if the decision were to allow it. Asking to run an exit is almost certain to subject your request to legal department scrutiny, so you might consider running a middle/entry node first for some time, say six or twelve months, before asking to upgrade your relay to an exit relay. That would give time to establish your skill at managing a relay, responding well and quickly when problems occur, to become personally known to the staff, and so forth. Once you've established a good reputation with them, they are more likely to oblige you. In any case, best wishes for your attempt. Please let us know whether you pull it off and, if so, what you did that succeeded.
Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG ********************************************************************** * Internet: bennett at sdf.org *xor* bennett at freeshell.org * *--------------------------------------------------------------------* * "A well regulated and disciplined militia, is at all times a good * * objection to the introduction of that bane of all free governments * * -- a standing army." * * -- Gov. John Hancock, New York Journal, 28 January 1790 * **********************************************************************