[tor-talk] William was raided for running a Tor exit node. Please help if you can.

[Joe Btfsplk]

On 12/1/2012 10:10 AM, Jean-Francois Mezei wrote:
> If Tor servers are just glorified routers then they could be considered
> more as transit providers and not responsible for content transiting
> through them.
>
> However, if a transit service goes out of its way to hide the identity
> of the sender of a packet to make it untraceable, then it becomes more
> than a simpler "carrier".
>
I think I understand your point, but if Tor (or anything else) isn't 
really anonymous, there's no point in advertising it as anonymous. 
Unless you're selling snake oil.  If gov'ts (or other groups) can get 
what they want, when they want, out of an ISP, exit relays, etc., then 
it's only anonymous as long as no one's interested in what you're saying 
or doing.  Meaning, it's not really anonymous at all.

If being anonymous, or more specifically, having anonymous communication 
is outlawed (& it almost is, in practice), then there will be no Tor.

The conundrum:  if every thing that has some useful purpose is outlawed 
because someone can also use it maliciously, or LEAs make so no one 
wants to touch it, then most everything could be be banned - by that 
line of thinking.
gasoline - gone.
2" x 4" lumber - can be used as weapon - gone.
baby diapers - can be used to smother someone - gone.
kitchen or butcher knives injure / kill thousands around the world each 
year?  They're not trying to outlaw knives over 5 inches, because they 
pose no threat to a gov't.

Bottom line is, no gov'ts want their law abiding or criminal citizens to 
communicate anonymously, because it takes away power. Yes, they want to 
catch criminals (& we want them to).  No, they're not concerned in the 
least if 90 - 99% (or what ever) of Tor users don't break the law.  If 
they catch criminals AND stop people from using Tor, running exits - out 
of fear, they killed 2 birds w/ one stone.

The internet is really the best thing invented to allow gov'ts of the 
world to keep tabs on all citizens ( though they say they're only after 
criminals).  When people still wrote letters, (most) gov'ts couldn't 
scan EVERY letter, just to see what popped up.