On 12/5/12, Jutta Zalud <ju@netzwerklabor.at> wrote:
Technically you are right. But then: what is the difference to ISPs? They offer routing- and DNS- and mail- and other services on various infrastructure.
ISPs typically have a customer. They know their customer, they retain sufficient information to identify their customer, such as name, billing address, physical location, telephone number, and have a signed agreement to provide the service. They collect consideration from their customer; usually in the form of cash. The customer of an ISP is normally expected to adhere to some sort of AUP or TOU, providing terms of their use of the service. Typically including some provisions, such as 'customer is responsible for activities that are performed while dialed into their account', 'no illegal activities', ' no sending spam', conducting other network abuses. For consumer ISPs, sometimes activities such as running internet servers, reselling, or providing ISP access to 3rd parties, might be restricted (restrictions incompatible with running a TOR exit node on that service). An end user operating a TOR exit node, or wide open Wireless AP, intentionally allows other people to connect to their infrastructure and the internet whom they have no relationship with or prior dealings with, in spite of the possibility of network abuse or illegal activities, they choose to allow connectivity without first gathering information required to hold the 3rd party responsible for their activity. An intentional "anonymizer" which is in contrast to what an ISP does. The operator of an ordinary anonymizer service is subject to the possibility of court-ordered intercept upon future use. If the operator of the Tor node believes that criminal intent is the most likely use of the TOR exit node. the degree of intentional ignorance might be considered so severe, that it becomes a situation in which they are considered culpable. E.g. the Tor exit node operator might possibly be considered an accessory, to the activity occuring on their node, that they are harboring / allowing to occur anonymously. Not to say whether Tor node operators are possibly guilty of anything or not. But they are definitely different from ISPs in a number of important ways. Any similarity between Open AP/Tor Exit node operator and ISP are highly superficial.
jutta -- -JH