[tor-relays] Subpoena received

[Dave Warren]

On 2015-04-20 10:31, Speak Freely wrote:
> A foreign sovereign can command anything to anyone... without a
> reasonable expectation that anyone will follow it.
>
> Even in Canada, I am not obliged to respond to American subpoenas unless
> and until my government commands me to. Only your sovereign can command
> you to do anything. A foreign sovereign has zero right to anything
> outside of it's own purview.

Keep in mind that if you do respond at all, the US court may claim to 
have waived jurisdictional arguments and consented to the jurisdiction, 
in which case a court order can be enforced cross-jurisdictionally in 
certain cases. Spamhaus learned the hard way when they hired a US lawyer 
to represent them and that lawyer responded incorrectly and enabled the 
lawsuit to become binding upon themselves despite the lack of physical 
presence within the US.

While they ultimately prevailed on their appeal to the greatest degree 
still available, they were unable to vacate the default judgement 
entirely (only the amount), so while they ended up paying a nominal 
amount and winning for more useful purposes, they technically lost the 
case. Had they failed to appeal or lost the appeal, the resulting order 
would have been binding and enforceable in UK courts because Spamhaus's 
actions consented to the plaintiff's choice of jurisdiction.

On the criminal side, you can also be extradited in certain cases. Kim 
Dotcom is still working through the complexities of this particular 
situation.

So I would highly recommend engaging a lawyer to verify that your 
actions don't waive any arguments or otherwise consent to anything that 
can be enforced across borders.

(And no, odds of any of this impacting a simple Tor operator are not 
very high unless you're otherwise a high profile or high value target)

-- 
Dave Warren
http://www.hireahit.com/
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/davejwarren