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Austrian Tor Exit Node Operator Found Guilty As an Accomplice
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from TechDirt: Three years ago we wrote about how Austrian police had seized computers from someone running a Tor exit node. This kind of thing happens from time to time, but it appears that folks in Austria have taken it up a notch by... effectively now making it illegal to run a Tor exit node. According to the report, which was confirmed by the accused, the court found that running the node violated 12 of the Austrian penal code, which effectively says:"Not only the immediate perpetrator commits a criminal action, but also anyone who appoints someone to carry it out, or anyone who otherwise contributes to the completion of said criminal action." In other words, it's a form of accomplice liability for criminality. It's pretty standard to name criminal accomplices liable for "aiding and abetting" the activities of others, but it's a massive and incredibly dangerous stretch to argue that merely running a Tor exit node makes you an accomplice that "contributes to the completion" of a crime. Under this sort of thinking, Volkswagen would be liable if someone drove a VW as the getaway car in a bank robbery. It's a very, very broad interpretation of accomplice liability, in a situation where it clearly does not make sense.
for giving birth to evil people. Arrest them all!
We're moving, slowly but surely, towards making your IP address the equivalent of your social security number in the US.
Is the ISP an accomplice too? And the operating system vendor?
It'll come down to an opinion as to whether or not the use of Tor implies an intent to allow others to break the law. While an anonymizer service itself can be used for both legal and illegal purposes, if the court later finds that its use is far more illegitimate than it is legitimate, then that will dictate how they rule on the matter.
That's the biggest difference compared to the car analogy, in that the demonstrated legitimate use of cars far, far outweighs the illegitimate use of cars. Using cars is the norm. Using Tor is not the norm, and so then it becomes a matter of scrutinizing what it does, who uses it, and for what purposes.
Same issues held true for networks like Napster and MegaUpload, and holds true for bit torrent.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Under this sort of thinking, Volkswagen would be liable if someone drove a VW as the getaway car in a bank robbery.
No. Under this sort of thinking, the owner of a Volkswagen would be liable if someone drove their VW as the getaway car in a bank robbery. And indeed, in some countries you can be held [partially] liable for misuse of your vehicle even if all you did was leave the keys in the car, especially if you have even a passing relationship with the perpetrators.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
You can spin up your own Tor exit node in Austria here: http://lowendbox.com/tag/austria/
Or, if you prefer, you can just donate to people that are running nodes here: https://www.torproject.org/docs/faq#RelayDonations
What? Read the article?
This IS slashdot right?
A bullet may have your name on it, but artillery is addressed to " Whom It May concern"
Or, in other words, guilty until proven innocent.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
More like arresting a taxi driver for transporting a bank robber when the taxi driver didn't know he was a bank robber.
1. Apparently a final ruling has not been reached. While a court has found the operator guilty it's not clear if that will ultimately hold.
2. None of TFA provide any details of what the ruling was based on, beyond the TOT node being used for illegal activity by someone else. Without more details, it is impossible to conclude that merely running a TOR node is illegal; the only conclusion from TFA is someone was prosecuted for running one. A relationship between the operator and the user committing fraud, or if the operator new the user was using the node of illegal purposes, is vastly different than merely running a node where a user is using it for illegal activities. The former is much more reasonable to prosecute than the latter.
3. As others point out, in keeping with /. traditions, the car analogy is bogus.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
Once, a congressman from the United States said of his constituents, "There are no law-abiding citizens, there are only citizens who haven't yet broken a law."
If you are going to quote someone then you need to give a name and, if possible, a reference. Saying "a congressman from the United States" is meaningless. Yes, I did a Google search for that phrase and found nothing.
Most of the world uses something called Civil Law as opposed to your Common Law that you inherited from UK.
Which is why in most of the world precedents don't carry as much weight as they do in Common Law legal systems like yours, where the rationale for the decision makes each sentence a binding precedent in other courts.
And that is why this single decision DOES NOT "effectively now make it illegal to run a Tor exit node" in Austria.
NOR would "Volkswagen be liable if someone drove a VW as the getaway car in a bank robbery".
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens