[tor-relays] legal issues past and present

[Andy Isaacson]

On Fri, Aug 30, 2013 at 11:38:26AM -0400, That Guy wrote:
> > I run an exit node off of a residential Verizon connection and I 
> > haven't seen a single threat, legal or otherwise so far, I dunno 
> > why you're having so much trouble.
> 
> Thank you for the reply but I have not either.  My comments come from
> reading many such issues on the mailing list and the many many
> experiences documented on the Good/bad ISP lists on the torproject
> websites.  I've had zero trouble with the sigle relay I'm running but
> as I also try to encourage others to run relays I was curious as I
> don't want to put OTHERS in a bad situation.

I ran a non-exit relay at home for many years without hearing any
complaints.  (I moved away from that ISP at the end of 2012 so I no
longer run that relay).  I haven't seen a credible description of a
non-exit relay being the cause of a complaint -- in most cases I have
seen described, there were several possible causes for a complaint and
the Tor relay was just one possible cause.

So, I would have no problem encouraging others to run a non-exit relay
on their home connection, since I don't believe that it is likely to put
them in a bad situation.  I would be clear with them that they should be
aware of the technical issues when doing so, of course.

-andy