Raided for running a Tor exit - Accepting donations for legal expenses

William

(More detailed informations can be found here: http://raided4tor.cryto.net/ in Dutch, German and English)
((partly censored for my own safety) Court order/search warrant can be found here: http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Beschluss.png )

Yes, it happened to me now as well - Yesterday i got raided for someone sharing child pornography over one of my Tor exits.
I'm good so far, not in jail, but all my computers and hardware have been confiscated.
(20 computers, 100TB+ storage, My Tablets/Consoles/Phones)

If convicted i could face up to 10 years in jail (min. 6 years), of course i do not want that and i also want to try to set a legal base for running Tor exit nodes in Austria or even the EU.

Sadly we have nothing like the EFF here that could help me in this case by legal assistance, so i'm on my own and require a good lawyer.
Thus i'm accepting donations for my legal expenses which i expect to be around 5000-10000 EUR.
If you can i would appreciate if you could donate a bit (every amount helps, even the smallest) either by PayPal (any currency is ok):

My PayPal was limited - Please consider using Bitcoin or Bank transfer (or contact me for other methods) - i expect it to work again tommorow (Friday).
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Or by Bank Transfer (EUR only please):

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Or BitCoin:
1CPKAMtD4bcLrh8SRHfSxBBMmQQ5cqahPZ

I will try to pay them back when i'm out of this (or even before) but i can obviously not guarantee this, please keep this in mind.
This money will only be used for legal expenses related to this case.

If you have any questions or want to donate by another way (MoneyBookers, Webmoney, Bitcoin, Liberty Reserve, Neteller) feel free to send me a mail ([email protected]) or a PM, or contact me in LET IRC.

Thanks!
William

bamn

@William

Care if I bring attention to your cause?

Asad

Good luck, donated

William

@bamn said: Care if I bring attention to your cause?

If you can, please.

Ishaq

Ouch, just ouch.. this sucks.. will it affect EDIS?

joepie91

For what it's worth, might want to try contacting the Dutch organization Bits of Freedom. They may have some ideas.

bamn

@William said: If you can, please.

Firing off emails as we speak and calling up the troops.

LET, prepare to be Slashdotted

http://slashdot.org/submission/2375957/austrian-man-raided-for-running-tor-node-exit

gsrdgrdghd

@bamn said: LET, prepare to be Slashdotted

Isn't Slashdot, like, dead?

joepie91

@bamn said: LET, prepare to be Slashdotted

Might want to wait for the topic to move to General first, if you were planning on linking to LET. Offtopic is only visible to registered users.

William

@Ishaq said: Ouch, just ouch.. this sucks.. will it affect EDIS?

No, this only affects me personally.
It has no influence on my job as well (unless i go to jail obviously) but i will have less time in future to provide help here at LET; IRC etc.)

@joepie91 said: Might want to wait for the topic to move to General first, if you were planning on linking to LET. Offtopic is only visible to registered users.

Done.

Wintereise

Will try my best as well, this sucks =/

NickM

The EFF may be able to help you find local resources to help you out. Good luck!

bamn

@gsrdgrdghd still working to inch out @kbeezie as my fan club President? Tip of the hat to you.

@William get local media on the issue, will help to "verify" your claim to put in this situation and cause donations to pour in. Folks may be apprehensive at first but multiple local or even Austrian new sources will help

William

@NickM said: The EFF may be able to help you find local resources to help you out. Good luck!

Sadly not, they have no contacts in Austria as this only seems to happen all few years here

@bamn said: @William get local media on the issue, will help to "verify" your claim to put in this situation and cause donations to pour in. Folks may be apprehensive at first but multiple local or even Austrian new sources will help

Will try.

Ishaq

Yea, try emailing [email protected]

Edit: Nevermind.

Nyr

As a student, I don't have much spare money, but I only wanted let you know that I am very sorry for you and to thank you for being awesome taking that risk.

As a fellow node operator, I wish you the best. Keep us updated, Will.

craigb

@william I'm sorry to hear that. Donation incoming...

concerto49

@William. All the best. Will do what can be done to help!

eastonch

Sorry to hear this @William,

Can happen to the best of us, it's a shame there's no legal standpoint on Tor Exits. but then again, a law allowing such a thing could lead to exploitation of that law.

Donated you 10E, even if it buys you some coffees, every little helps, right?

Good luck and keep us informed.

Paul

@William said: If convicted i could face up to 6 years in jail

That's tough, man...Hoping for the best, Wil.

erhwegesrgsr

@Ishaq said: Ouch, just ouch.. this sucks.. will it affect EDIS?

Hosting a TOR exit isn't really smart when you run a company as TOR mostly attracts people like that indeed...
Most providers don't allow public proxies for this reason...

jar

Not sure how I can help (car issues draining money to dangerously low levels) but I'm keeping my eyes open for any opportunity that arises. Moral support here for the moment, for what it's worth.

Damian

Sent in a donation on behalf of IPXcore. All providers should consider sending in a donation, regardless of size or value, as William's ability to defend or not defend this will set a legal precedence in the EU on this issue.

bamn

@BronzeByte said: Hosting a TOR exit isn't really smart when you run a company as TOR mostly attracts people like that indeed...

Wow dude, low blow. There is a time and place for commentary. Right now is not the time.

erhwegesrgsr

@bamn said: Right now is not the time.

Yes it is...

HalfEatenPie

@BronzeByte said: Yes it is...

No its not.

jar

@HalfEatenPie said: No its not.

Seconded. Don't kick a nice guy when he's down.

erhwegesrgsr

@jarland said: Don't kick a nice guy when he's down.

I didn't want to blame @william, would rather talk about how to prevent stuff like this.
but ok, ill shut up then

jar

@BronzeByte said: would rather talk about how to prevent stuff like this.

That's a great thread idea.

HalfEatenPie

@BronzeByte said: ill shut up then

I like this more

erhwegesrgsr

@HalfEatenPie said: I like this more

Watch out or I'll eat you, you damn pie, hehehe

bamn

@jarland said: That's a great thread idea.

http://www.lowendtalk.com/discussion/6286/tor-tor-exit-node-discussion

KnightSwarm_Phillip

There you go @William . Donated a bit, hope it helps.

Awmusic12635

Donated an amount. Good luck

vedran

Keep us posted

gsrdgrdghd

Good luck William! If the past is any indication you will get your stuff back & charges will be dropped once the police learns how Tor works.

I just hope you don't get into trouble for "backups of cinema visits" or likewise on the HDDs

djvdorp

Darn @William, will do my best to help you
Stay strong!

joepie91

@Damian said: All providers should consider sending in a donation, regardless of size or value, as William's ability to defend or not defend this will set a legal precedence in the EU on this issue.

For what it's worth, as far as I know a large part of European countries use case law at least to some degree - this means that even on a local level, it may be useful in some countries to have a EU-wide legal precedent on this situation.

Maounique

From what I know (not a lawyer, but have one close) this will not go to court, if it does, will get a good precedent for Tor operators in EU.
The European court will settle this if the Austrians are so incompetent to convict William.
The only thing I am afraid now, is what they will find on those computers/tablets, whatever. The prosecutors will be trying to interpret the law as harsh as possible to get a conviction, even on another minor offense, such as illegal music (some friend gave something, for example and we tend to forget those). They will not like it at all to let go a "child molester" as the media will put all over.
Best of luck, one day might be in the same situation, I operate nodes at home, even if the policy is very restrictive, hope this is settled once and for all.

Asim

I feel sorry for what happened to you. I hope the legal process is not influenced to make you guilty.

I also have a day job and my little adventures at the same time, I can understand how a little adventure can go so horribly wrong when the usersabusers hide and you are the one to answer for their sh*t

miTgiB

@Maounique said: The prosecutors will be trying to interpret the law as harsh as possible to get a conviction, even on another minor offense, such as illegal music (some friend gave something, for example and we tend to forget those).

Shouldn't anything found that was not listed on the warrant be inadmissible?

Sent William 10EUR cuz guns should be free and clear of this mess

Nyr

@Liam I hope that a Hacker News frontpage can bring @William a few more funds for the legal costs

JTR

No offense, but you shouldn't have been running a exit node if you weren't prepared to deal with the immense legal issues surrounding exit nodes for a hidden network primarily filled with illegal content, drug dealing, and child pornography.

cosmicgate

donated just because he had guns.

what a bad ass you are william. tsk tsk tsk

William

@JTR said: No offense, but you shouldn't have been running a exit node if you weren't prepared to deal with the immense legal issues surrounding exit nodes for a hidden network primarily filled with illegal content, drug dealing, and child pornography.

I am, partially, but i have no access to any higher sums of money due to this at the moment (which i didn't expect, i get more money in cash stored for the next time...)

kalam

I know it's not much, but I donated 10 euros. Good luck William.

jar

We refunded old invoices. It's not much but me and Ryan really appreciated your support for our vps venture. You're quite an asset to this community.

jkr1711

@William 10 Euros donated, best of luck to you

joepie91

@miTgiB said: Shouldn't anything found that was not listed on the warrant be inadmissible?

No. It's very common in Europe to seize any unrelated but 'questionable' goods during a raid or road search. These findings can result in separate charges.

Corey

@William 10 Euros donated from my personal fund, good luck I hope everything turns out well for you.

antiven

Donated 10 Euros, hopefully this works out for you.