[tor-relays] In which countries are relays needed, disallowed?

[Steve Snyder]

It's been suggested that perhaps I mis-interpreted what I was told about establishing the relay in the UK.  I specified a host name that reflected the use of the server as a Tor relay, and this was the response I got:

"When it came to filling out the hostname for your VPS, the name struck me. I need to make you aware that we cannot allow anonymous tunneling of traffic through our servers. If it's for your own personal use that's fine, even if it's for the public it's fine so long as records are kept and are disclosed if presented with a legal requirement under UK Law."

This company was OK with setting up the same VPS with the same terms in Texas.

FYI.


-----Original Message-----
From: "Julian Yon" <julian at yon.org.uk>
Sent: Friday, November 25, 2011 10:38am
To: tor-relays at lists.torproject.org
Subject: Re: [tor-relays] In which countries are relays needed, disallowed?

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On 25/11/11 15:12, Steve Snyder wrote:
> I tried to set up a Tor relay in the UK today and was told that UK
> law prohibited anonymous Internet traffic.  My tentative UK ISP told
> me that they must be able to provide identification of users if
> presented with a court order.  Hmmm...

Did they quote the relevant legislation? It smells of bulls**t. AFAIK
the ISP only needs to be able to identify *you*. A court order served on
the ISP won't be binding on you. And data protection law should mean
that you don't have to disclose anything to your ISP about people who
use your service. Think about if you were providing a business service;
your customers would be entitled to confidentiality (under DPA). Are you
prepared to name the ISP?

I'm asking as I'm in the UK (but not a lawyer). I know this country has
become incredibly hostile towards anonymity of late, but to the best of
my knowledge no existing legislation outright forbids it.


Julian

-- 
3072D/D2DE707D Julian Yon (2011 General Use) <pgp.2011 at jry.me>