[tor-relays] case law on for exit nodes

[Bill Waggoner]

On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 6:47 PM, Mike Perry <mikeperry at torproject.org> wrote:
> Thus spake Daniel Case (danielcase10 at gmail.com):
>
> AFAIK, this is still true in the US. However, I'm pretty sure I've seen
> at least 3 court cases in the EU on this list (though too busy to dig
> them up right now). There have also been several equipment seizures in
> the EU that never escalated to a court case...

And there lies the rub.  The corporate interests can make things so
difficult for people they oppose, including Tor operators, even
without an actual court case, that the damage is frequently hidden.
The chilling effect of the direct threat of legal action makes the
actual legal action unnecessary in all but a few cases.

Mike Masnick at techdirt.com covers this phenomenon fairly frequently.
 I equate it to the much older tactic of "somethin' bad could happen
... if youse know what I mean?" style but using the legal system as
the "bad" that could happen ...

Very few have the wherewithal to carry a case all the way to court.