GERMAN JUSTICE MINISTER CALLS FOR LIMITS TO NET ANONYMIZER

[Matthias Fischmann]

On Wed, Aug 23, 2006 at 08:23:45PM +0200, Niels Grewe wrote:
> To: or-talk at freehaven.net
> From: Niels Grewe <ap65 at opennet-initiative.de>
> Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 20:23:45 +0200
> Subject: Re: GERMAN JUSTICE MINISTER CALLS FOR LIMITS TO NET ANONYMIZER
> 
> 
> On 23.08.2006 at 19:09 Robert Hogan wrote:
> 
> >"If there was reasonable suspicion of a crime and if the German  
> >Code of
> >Criminal Procedure provided for such an approach in the case in  
> >question, it
> >was quite possible to register the IP addresses of computers, Mr.  
> >Weichert
> >observed."
> >
> >Umm. So it's only anonymous until they need to find out who you  
> >are? Or have I
> >misunderstood the point?
> 
> Unfortunately you haven't. According to the JAP (the anonymizer in  
> question) FAQ [1], JAP servers can be set up to "tag" and log  
> connections from certain source/destination-combinations, when  
> prosecution authorities request it, but apparently resolving past  
> connections ex-post is impossible. This seems to be some trade-off in  
> order to comply with German legislation and not render the program  
> illegal. Which brings up the qcooerateuestion of the legal status of Tor  
> servers in Germany. What would happen to a server operator forced by  
> law to log individual future connections, but unable to do so, since  
> Tor doesn't allow it?

there is an easy answer to this one: the cops you will talk to
understand the technology better than Mr. Weichert, and most of them
have personally dealt with operators of anonymizers before.  so it is
possible to have serious instructive communication with them.
basically you have three options: (a) go off-line for good and be left
alone; (b) cooperate with authorities (although i don't know what that
means in the case of tor, as all the information you could log doesn't
really help them); (c) seek trouble (which might get pretty
interesting, because i don't think the laws are designed for a
technology like tor).

whatever the problems with (b) and (c), you always have (a), so you
can worry about those when you are contacted by officials.

of course all i am saying is at best valid until considerable changes
to the legal situation as of today have been implemented.  also, if
you are a suspect in a determined investigation, the people who raid
you may be be in a different mood than those that i talked to as a
sysop in a big university.  but then having a raid in your living room
might be an interesting experience, too.  (-:


matthias
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