[tor-talk] Liability to Prosecution for Operating Tor Nodes in Austria

[Joe Btfsplk]

On 7/1/2014 6:35 PM, flapflap wrote:
> Hi,
>
> FYI (both only in German):
> https://network23.org/blackoutaustria/2014/07/01/to-whom-it-my-concern/
> (via https://blog.fefe.de/?ts=ad4dd623)
>
> (I'm not familiar with the language of law, just try to summarize it to
> inform you; maybe someone else could translate it more accurately...)
>
> A court in Austria ruled that one can be held liable to prosecution for
> operating a Tor Exit [but likely also Middle] Node, when it is used by
> someone to commit a criminal action.
>
> The judge justifies the decision by §12 of the penal code:
> "Not only the direct perpetrator commits a criminal action, but also
> everyone who appoints someone else to commit it or otherwise adds to its
> execution."
>
> what a sad and poor decision :(
>
> To cite (and roughly translate) Fefe:
> "As a precaution, Austrians should stop operating communication
> infrastructure like Jabber, email, and web servers with comment or
> upload functionality, or telephones and fax machines. If I [Fefe] were
> the post, I [Fefe] would stop operations, too."
>
> ~flapflap
>
Wouldn't that mean that any mainstream ISP would also be liable for one 
of their customers committing a crime while using their service?
Or GM is liable if a driver of a GM car gets drunk & injures someone?