Tor Anonymity Server Admin Arrested

[ThePitt]

In a recent blog posting, a German operator of a Tor anonymous proxy server revealed that he was arrested by German police officers at the end of July. Although he was released shortly afterwards, information about the arrest had been kept quiet until his lawyers were able to get the charges dropped.

Tor is a privacy tool designed to allow users to communicate and browse anonymously on the Internet. It's endorsed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and other civil liberties groups as a method for whistle blowers and human-rights workers to communicate with journalists. Tor provides anonymous web browsing software to hundreds of thousands of users around the world, according to its developers. The largest numbers of users are in the United States, the European Union and China.

Showing up at his house at midnight on a Sunday night, police cuffed and arrested him in front of his wife and seized his equipment. In a display of both bitter irony and incompetence, the police did not take or shut-down the Tor server responsible for the traffic they were interested in, which was located in a data center, over 500km away. In the last year, Germany has passed a draconian new anti-security research law and raided seven different data centers to seize Tor servers.

http://itnomad.wordpress.com/2007/09/16/to...dness-reloaded/

::EDIT::

this is the guy

Edited September 17, 2007 by ThePitt

[Shof]

Wow. Thats sad to get arrested like that

[Horrocks Veteran]

A lot of tor servers have some pretty bad stuff on them.

[pkmn]

While I enjoy being able to be anonymous if I want to, it is sick that a bunch of Torr servers are full of digusting content and should be nuked from space.

Why can't we have good things?

[Caleb]

Tor servers only route traffic, they don't keep anything.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Tor servers only route traffic, they don't keep anything.

exactly

[LightIdea]

Tor servers only route traffic, they don't keep anything.

Some people don't realise that :p

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

And if routers are bad, then my god, we'd have to rip out 80% of the net's infrastructure.

And that would be on the low end of the guess scale.

[shockz]

While I enjoy being able to be anonymous if I want to, it is sick that a bunch of Torr servers are full of digusting content and should be nuked from space.

Why can't we have good things?

Tor servers route... not store.

[The Teej]

I'm glad that his lawyers were able to get the charges dropped. Good for him!

[7Dash8]

Tor servers only route traffic, they don't keep anything.

If tor facilitates the disgusting sites, they're part of the problem.

[Malisk]

A lot of tor servers have some pretty bad stuff on them.

Yeah, not to mention how much bad stuff is passing through the ISP's servers that they've voluntarily put up much like this guy, just that they do it for profit instead, and to run a business. Also, not to mention how much bad stuff the postal service delivers. Or legal usenet servers. Child porn is daily traded there on sites like GigaNews and EasyNews. Personally, I think Tor does so much good for society that it shouldn't be stopped. It can help out a lot in countries where freedom is surpressed. If it's misused, it should be treated as about any other misused service -- find the ones misusing it, and go for them. Something tells me this admin wasn't at all necessarily involved in that and they had little evidence on their hands.

If tor facilitates the disgusting sites, they're part of the problem.

The entire Internet infrastructure is "part of the problem", because it all "facilitates" the digusting sites by routing material, just like these servers. But let's go for the sources instead of shooting the messengers. Your argument only holds if you honestly believe anonymity should be a crime.

Edited September 17, 2007 by Jugalator

[whocares78]

A lot of tor servers have some pretty bad stuff on them.

how is whats on them got anythign to do with anything, it's an anonymous proxy, it is for surfiung the web anonymously not downloading dodgy stuff, i think you meant to say a lot of dodgy stuff is got through tor servers, remember they are indeed only proxies.

And if routers are bad, then my god, we'd have to rip out 80% of the net's infrastructure.

And that would be on the low end of the guess scale.

if routers are bad, then we may as well just turn off the internet, talk to you all in real life :)

If tor facilitates the disgusting sites, they're part of the problem.

they are not part of the problem, learn what they do then come back and complain about them as you have no idea what a proxy is

[7Dash8]

I know exactly what a proxy is. I ask instead that you come back when you get some manners, or a deeper understanding of the problem. The standard 15 year old's response is not wanted here, thanks.

The anonymity of tor is what facilitates garbage. People use the excuse that they want "privacy" on the Internet as though somehow they're constantly being stalked and need to protect themselves against dangerous intrusion. In truth most proxies are used by people to do unsavory or illegal things and to cover their tracks, not by human rights activists trying to protect themselves. It's pretty damn obvious unless you've been living under a rock for the past 5 years.

This is the same excuse torrent providers use "Oh we don't host pirated material, torrents can be used for legal file distribution". Yet of course the most common and overwhelming use for torrent technology is the distribution of pirated material.

The Internet infrastructure itself on the other hand is not primarily designed nor used mainly for illegal or unsavory activities, so it isn't the source of the problem.

[Colin-uk Veteran]

That doesnt mean we should get rid of them just because they can be used for bad things.

Thats like saying, we should ban Hammers because you can hurt people with them.

Tor wasnt created with the intention of allowing people to do "bad things".

Also, any server/router regardless of wheather it keeps a log of traffic thats passes through it or not can be used for the same thing.

[Diffused Mind]

I know exactly what a proxy is.

If you did, then your posts would not exist.

[GEIST]

I know exactly what a proxy is. I ask instead that you come back when you get some manners, or a deeper understanding of the problem. The standard 15 year old's response is not wanted here, thanks.

The anonymity of tor is what facilitates garbage. People use the excuse that they want "privacy" on the Internet as though somehow they're constantly being stalked and need to protect themselves against dangerous intrusion. In truth most proxies are used by people to do unsavory or illegal things and to cover their tracks, not by human rights activists trying to protect themselves. It's pretty damn obvious unless you've been living under a rock for the past 5 years.

This is the same excuse torrent providers use "Oh we don't host pirated material, torrents can be used for legal file distribution". Yet of course the most common and overwhelming use for torrent technology is the distribution of pirated material.

The Internet infrastructure itself on the other hand is not primarily designed nor used mainly for illegal or unsavory activities, so it isn't the source of the problem.

Then according to the little logic I was able to detect in your posts, the entire world wide web should be shut down, because it "facilitates the disgusting sites" and it's "part of the problem". And you know, not everything that's better covered up is necessarily illegal. :rolleyes:

And, if you really knew what a proxy is, you wouldn't mention only TOR servers "facilitating the disgusting sites". A damn lot of non-encrypted, non-anymous proxies do that as well while routing everyone's everyday web traffic.

[7Dash8]

I'm not here to argue with you guys, it's obvious that anything that lets people steal copyrighted material and download porn must be a great thing, because 99% of the posts here will always applaud these technologies no matter what they're used for.

Tor and anonymous proxies are predominantly used for illegal purposes. Anyone saying anything else is dreaming. The Internet and web servers on the other hand are not predominantly used for illegal purposes.

Anyway as I said it's pretty pointless arguing with you guys about these things, go ahead and clap like seals anytime someone does something illegal because they're obviously "fighting for freedom".

[struct]

I'm not here to argue with you guys, it's obvious that anything that lets people steal copyrighted material and download porn must be a great thing, because 99% of the posts here will always applaud these technologies no matter what they're used for.

Tor and anonymous proxies are predominantly used for illegal purposes. Anyone saying anything else is dreaming. The Internet and web servers on the other hand are not predominantly used for illegal purposes.

Anyway as I said it's pretty pointless arguing with you guys about these things, go ahead and clap like seals anytime someone does something illegal because they're obviously "fighting for freedom".

Why is Tor needed to download porn? Also, please state your sources for the "predominantly used for illegal purposes" bit. I'm sure there's a report titled "2006 Tor Traffic Analysis" out there somewhere, as your arguments would be completely baseless without it.

[lhnz]

The Internet and web servers on the other hand are not predominantly used for illegal purposes.

I believe a lot of internet bandwidth is actually used for p2p and youtube, and you know what that means... :)

THE INTERNET IS PREDOMINATELY USED FOR ILLEGAL PURPOSES! ohnoes!

[whocares78]

I know exactly what a proxy is. I ask instead that you come back when you get some manners, or a deeper understanding of the problem. The standard 15 year old's response is not wanted here, thanks.

The anonymity of tor is what facilitates garbage. People use the excuse that they want "privacy" on the Internet as though somehow they're constantly being stalked and need to protect themselves against dangerous intrusion. In truth most proxies are used by people to do unsavory or illegal things and to cover their tracks, not by human rights activists trying to protect themselves. It's pretty damn obvious unless you've been living under a rock for the past 5 years.

This is the same excuse torrent providers use "Oh we don't host pirated material, torrents can be used for legal file distribution". Yet of course the most common and overwhelming use for torrent technology is the distribution of pirated material.

The Internet infrastructure itself on the other hand is not primarily designed nor used mainly for illegal or unsavory activities, so it isn't the source of the problem.

i don't think you really do understand, it makes people goign to dodgy sites anonymous, it doens't hide the dodgy sites, and if you take out the tor servers you can still quite easily go to all them dodgy sites, you just can't do it annonymously.

The torrent excuse is a good one, hell neowin uses torents legally, becasue some use it for illegal purposes shouldn't make it illegal. it is an incredibly fast file sharing network with distributed load, which is a very useful thing.

i spose you want to take all the high speed tape dubbers of the shelfs and while were at it lets stop selling dvd burners cause they are used to copy DVD's and can be used to put dodgy stuff on and swapped.

If you want to get rid of dodgy sits then take down the dodgy sites, not the proxies that let people got o dodgy sites anonymously.

[whocares78]

I'm not here to argue with you guys, it's obvious that anything that lets people steal copyrighted material and download porn must be a great thing, because 99% of the posts here will always applaud these technologies no matter what they're used for.

Tor and anonymous proxies are predominantly used for illegal purposes. Anyone saying anything else is dreaming. The Internet and web servers on the other hand are not predominantly used for illegal purposes.

Anyway as I said it's pretty pointless arguing with you guys about these things, go ahead and clap like seals anytime someone does something illegal because they're obviously "fighting for freedom".

firstly PORN is not Illegal (well some of it is in some countries) so that leaves stealing copyright material, umm isn't that what torrents are used for, people were copying music and stealing videos long befroe the internet and even longer before the tor servers.

[darkobjects]

I'm not here to argue with you guys, it's obvious that anything that lets people steal copyrighted material and download porn must be a great thing, because 99% of the posts here will always applaud these technologies no matter what they're used for.

Tor and anonymous proxies are predominantly used for illegal purposes. Anyone saying anything else is dreaming. The Internet and web servers on the other hand are not predominantly used for illegal purposes.

Anyway as I said it's pretty pointless arguing with you guys about these things, go ahead and clap like seals anytime someone does something illegal because they're obviously "fighting for freedom".

I doubt your still reading this thread anymore, but i want to say this anyways. To me it seems as though you are blaming TOR for not only allowing illegal activities to happen but to help it, and to be honest it does. However I don't think this makes this software "bad" or evil or any of that ****, but rather a misused tool. Instead i would say the people that are using this "tool" for illegal activities are the problem & responsible for what they are doing, the tool is nothing but a tool. For example a gun or a hammer could be used for good things and to help people, but they can also be used for bad purposes (shoot someone, smash something...). Just because it can be used for a bad purpose doesn't make it the problem and definitely not something that should be looked down upon. People are always going to want to get something for the least amount of effort, and as long as theirs a drive they will find their way.

So how about you stop bashing a useful tool (which it is, imagine you lived in china...) and start bashing those misusing for their own pleasure.

[Davebo]

A lot of tor servers have some pretty bad stuff on them.

You (clearly) have no idea what you're talking about.

[thunderrooster]

I'm not here to argue with you guys, it's obvious that anything that lets people steal copyrighted material and download porn must be a great thing, because 99% of the posts here will always applaud these technologies no matter what they're used for.

Tor and anonymous proxies are predominantly used for illegal purposes. Anyone saying anything else is dreaming. The Internet and web servers on the other hand are not predominantly used for illegal purposes.

Anyway as I said it's pretty pointless arguing with you guys about these things, go ahead and clap like seals anytime someone does something illegal because they're obviously "fighting for freedom".

You cannot use tor with emule limewire shareaza etc... for downloading files. As for porn I never use tor for that lol. My isp does not stop me from visiting them sites. If you have a problem with porn maybe you should tell every isp in the world to block them and while you are at it shut down the porn sites. Do a search look at the tor docs there is not many apps that work with tor. It is mainly for keeping you anonymous while you surf the internet and thats about it. As far as anyone saying tor servers have bad stuff on them thats a crock. Tor servers only direct traffic and thats it just like a router directs traffic and does store anything. Anyone that is using tor can be a server. Just because I might be a server has nothing to do with the files I have stored on my computer. Only thing a tor server does is direct traffic.