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

[Barry Shein]

On November 30, 2012 at 08:18 joakim at aronius.se (Joakim Aronius) wrote:
 > 
 > I am all for being anonymous on the net but I seriously believe that we still need to enforce the law when it comes to serious felonies like child pr0n, organized crime etc, we can't give them a free pass just by using Tor. I dont think it should be illegal to operate a Tor exit node but what just happened could be a consequence of doing it.

Yeah, next they'll let just anyone walk down the sidewalk without
identifying themselves. And those are public sidewalks paid for by tax
dollars!

Or drop a few coins in a public telephone (I know, a little dated, but
they exist) w/o id and commit some crime!

I think some here need to reflect on what they're saying.

Sure, it'd be better to stop bad guys, but this has always been the
problem in a free society, you can't just put draconian rules on
everyone else because otherwise some bad guy might not be immediately
and easily identified.

This was the sort of reasoning they used in the Soviet Union to make
it very difficult to get access to a photocopy machine (ask someone
who lived there, it was practically like buying a firearm in the US.)

We're all (well most of us) glad that law enforcement does its job,
but even the US Constitution (3rd amendment) bothered to state:

    No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house,
    without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a
    manner to be prescribed by law.

It's only an analogy but I think it's clear, if we're protected from
being forced to provide food & shelter directly to soldiers presumably
defending our lives and country the principle as it pertains to being
required to do whatever law enforcement dreams up to catch bad guys is
pretty clear. As a principle -- Note: I am NOT making a legal point!

Ok, grab onto that "manner prescribed by law", but remember that it
said "in time of war". None of what we're discussing is relevant to
any war (except as politicians toss around the war on this or that.)

 > Of course they might not know abot Tor and believes that it is Mr Williams that is the bad guy. 
 > 
 > /J

Sure, but I assume he told them that :-)

-- 
        -Barry Shein

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