Tor Exit Node Operator Charged

A Tor exit node operator in Austria has been arrested and charged with distribution of child pornography because apparently law enforcement discovered illegal images passing through 1 of his 7 exit nodes. He says that he has terabytes of data pass through his nodes daily and shouldn't be held accountable for somebody's misuse of the onion network. He said the prescedent his case could set is worrying.

During interview with police later on Wednesday, Weber said there was a "more friendly environment" once investigators understood the Polish server that transmitted the illegal images was used by Tor participants rather than by Weber himself. But he said he still faces the possibility of serious criminal penalties and the possibility of a precedent that Tor operators can be held liable if he's convicted.​

"Sadly we have nothing like the EFF here that could help me in this case by legal assistance, so I'm on my own and require a good lawyer," ​

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...-for-child-porn-transmitted-over-his-servers/

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this doesn't surprise me one bit

 

In my opinion, this is the first serious step towards dismantling TOR, by scaring exit nodes operators to shut down.

 

Hey, they could hire William a very good lawyer

 

I'd contact the EFF if I was him, I'm sure they would help.

 

Typical lack of IT know-how in law.

 

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I don't get why TOR does not use a system that multiple people rent the exit node servers. For example a company who only use bitcoins but 1000 users donate, so no one user owns the server and can be accountable for the traffic.

 

I don't think it would make a difference. 1,000 contributors would mean 1,000 people that could be held 100% responsible!

 

Try enforcing it though, 1000 people across the globe. Each can claim the other was the one using the service for negative means, you have reasonable doubt on your side.

 

I doubt that would work. From what I've read on tor-talk, running Tor exit nodes depends on good working relationships with server hosts. That would be hard for 1000 "anonymous" operators. Those exit nodes wouldn't last long.