Next news from Germany

[la710]

Hi Karsten and everyone,
im running a tor server, too (fractal) . Like many german tor server  
this one is hosted by the popular ISP Hetzner (Bavaria).
Im getting strongly concerned about the online warrant discussion and  
wanted to ask how you feel about it. I never
got any letters from the BKA; I dont run an exit node. Im thinking  
about quitting my ISP contract and move
my server to somewhere else (outside germany).
Karsten can you give me or us some more details about your BKA  
trouble. Do you think this is a test from the "Verfassungsschutz/BKA"  
how far you can "exploit" the german law right now and after you, we  
all will get letters the next month.
I somehow feel very unconfident about my situation running a tor  
server and I want to be abit prepared about some kind of
storm thats maybe coming up.
Greetings
Johannes

On Jul 10, 2007, at 10:52 PM, Jacob Appelbaum wrote:

> Eugen Leitl wrote:
>> On Tue, Jul 10, 2007 at 06:22:48PM +0300, Jacob Appelbaum wrote:
>>
>>> It seems that way. I run more than one node in Germany and I  
>>> don't have
>>
>> Which Bundesland? Don't try this in Bavaria...
>
> As I understand it, Frankfurt and Berlin are nice places to run a  
> server
> or two.
>
>>
>>> a problem. It's a sad state of affairs that people are being  
>>> forced to
>>> shut down their nodes. I'm sorry the police are questioning you,  
>>> I do
>>> hope that they'll eventually understand that they have nothing to  
>>> gain
>>> by doing this.
>>
>> Of course they have plenty to win. No Tor exit nodes in Germany --  
>> no problem.
>>
>
> They can't win that battle. Tor is already adapting to stop  
> blocking and
> this has an added benefit, it makes a great deal more nodes to seize.
>
>> Then, iterate across the world.
>>
>
> I'd like to make a comment about living in a free country but I've yet
> to really find one. I have some protection under the law but I realize
> that it's only as good as my ability to pay for lawyers.
>
>> And/or make anonymizing services illegal, so only criminals have  
>> anonymity.
>
> This sounds like you need to ensure your government doesn't take this
> route. Or find a strong economic case for anonymous communication.
>
>> And there's a very good chance this is going to work.
>
> I want to doubt you but I think it's possible. A serious crackdown  
> could
> happen to a specific piece of software or protocol. It happened in  
> Japan
> with Winny, right?
>
> I think that Tor is different but only time will tell.
>
> Regards,
> Jacob