lots of DMCA request's... (1/day)

[Geoffrey Goodell]

On Sun, May 18, 2008 at 04:58:08PM -0400, Brian Puccio wrote:
> On May 15, 2008, at 6:56 PM, tara at birl.org wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone, I run an exit node (nickname: swopusa), and now I'm  
>> averaging 1 DMCA request per day for TV shows, movies and the like,  
>> from paramount, NBC universal, etc.
>>
>> I do BW limiting @ 100k/sec -- 2GB/day.  Otherwise it's the default  
>> configuration.
>>
>> I'm really not all that smart about tor, I've never even used it as a 
>> client. I don't mind occasional DMCA requests but 1 a day is starting 
>> to piss off my ISP (linode.com) and frustrate me.
>
> For what it is worth, here is Linode's position on running an exit node:
>
> http://www.linode.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3082

The comment from caker is important:

http://www.linode.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=14063&sid=d0c8a8f83495edf787592499f4fdb5f5#14063

"Eventually, we'd run tired of handling these and ask you to knock it
off."

Linode staff are exercising discretion in determining which
circumstances warrant threatening their customers with disconnection.
There is no refinable, repeatable way for a customer to know whether her
deployment of a Tor exit node is acceptable to Linode or not -- that
decision rests squarely with Linode on a case-by-case basis.

Unchecked discretion offers an opportunity for discrimination.  Who is to
say that some customers running Tor nodes will not cause Linode admins to
"run tired" sooner than others for reasons entirely unrelated to the
activity of their exit nodes?

What is not clear is why Linode staffers want to take on such
responsibility -- do they really want to be in a position of judging
what constitutes acceptable behavior and what does not, any more than is
necessary to satisfy legal requirements and fairness issues with respect
to network performance?