Automated threat messages force limitation of Exit Policy (Softlayer)

[Mike Perry]

Thus spake Moritz Bartl (tor at wiredwings.com):

> After running our 300MBit/s Tor node for less than a week, the US data
> center Softlayer has forced me to limit our exit policy to well-known
> ports after receiving 25 automated Torrent DMCA complaints this weekend
> and again more than 20 in the last two days. I hope that now that the
> policy is restricted they will allow the node to stay up.

Out of curiosity, what exit policy are you now using? Perhaps we want
to standardize on a policy that is effective at reducing these
complaints.
 
> All these complaints list pretty much the same Torrents, have been
> issued by MediaSentry or BayTSP, and each offers to get back to them on
> changing email addresses and through a web form. For each single abuse
> case, I have tried to reach them to tell them about the node and its
> background, including the offer to block on IP/Port basis and the URL to
> EFF's legal page, but they didn't get back to me and didn't stop the
> spamming. I even filed a counter notification with written signature etc.

I'm not a lawyer, but as a common carrier/service provider, you should
be specifically exempt from these noticies, as you're not hosting
content and are not the infringing party.

If you've filed the counternotice, maybe suggest your ISP just blackhole
future mails from the abuse sender? Did they SWIP you the IP block?

Back in 2005, the EFF was actively looking for a test case to
demonstrate that Tor exit nodes and other service providers are exempt
via safe harbor provisions:
http://archives.seul.org/or/talk/Oct-2005/msg00208.html

As far as I know, they never got their test case.

We can check to see if they are still looking for one, and what it
might take for your situation to develop into a good test case for
them. The abuse senders may actually have to initiate legal action
against you first, which is unlikely. Being able to tell your ISP
that the EFF will defend you in this unlikely situation might also
help your position with them.


-- 
Mike Perry
Mad Computer Scientist
fscked.org evil labs
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