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Man found guilty of child porn because he ran a Tor exit node

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Re: Man found guilty of child porn because he ran a Tor exit node

#491

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know how you think the courts work but your roommates looking at you does not end up convicting anybody. Used as perhaps part of justifying probable cause or convincing people to say enough to do a more thorough search, sure.

A jury trial of your peers is a rare thing these days. This is how it would go down: The investigator says "who's been downloading CP?" and everyone looks at you. Probably because you're the weirdo internet geek among the family/roommates. They now have a suspect, and nothing you say then will convince them otherwise. They interview everyone separately leading the conversation to get statements about circumstantial t…

This is exactly how the legal system works. You are railroaded from the start and effectively coerced into a plea. Truth does not matter. Justice is exceptionally rare. It is terrifying.

Re: Man found guilty of child porn because he ran a Tor exit node

#492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure you're not thinking of Mullvad? Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35638917

Yes. This is a totally unrelated case that never made the news.

Countless examples of Nord supplying logs. They all have to keep logs or would be banned from offering services to US citizens.

Re: Man found guilty of child porn because he ran a Tor exit node

#493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A jury trial of your peers is a rare thing these days. This is how it would go down: The investigator says "who's been downloading CP?" and everyone looks at you. Probably because you're the weirdo internet geek among the family/roommates. They now have a suspect, and nothing you say then will convince them otherwise. They interview everyone separately leading the conversation to get statements about circumstantial t…

That sounds incredibly dysfunctional and rather scary. However, if I'm to be a bit sceptical, of the five felonies the cops found evidence for on your roommates computer, how many had he actually committed? Maybe he was just guilty but told you he's innocent. That's what most people do, what I'd do.

It's exactly this attitude of desperately wanting to believe the police that ensures minimal accountability so it continues. I want to as well but is it really possible as soon as you start looking a bit harder at the situation?

J. Edgar Hoover is still venerated by having his name on the HQ building in Washington. There's no doubt left about exactly what he was.

Re: Man found guilty of child porn because he ran a Tor exit node

#494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your starting point is still kinda skewed, because "heteronormative" is a made-up thing by society rather than an actual thing someone can be. There's a traditional view of sexuality that men are only sexually attracted to women, and vice versa, and that's normal and everything else is not normal (kinky). The more we learn about sex (and gender) the more we learn that there are very few completely "normal" pe…

> I think your starting point is still kinda skewed, because "heteronormative" is a made-up thing by society rather than an actual thing someone can be. It's a term rooted in the conditions that make sex a reproductive act and not just something that feels good

Which is getting back to the religious crap of "sex is only for reproduction, between a married couple". Yes sex can result in reproduction, but I think making that its primary purpose misses the point. We experience a desire to fuck, separate from our desire to reproduce. They're two different things that are only related in a tiny minority of circumstances. Classifying someone's sexuality by its possible reproductive outcome is like classifying their tongues by the ability to curl into a tube: kinda valid, but not that useful.

Re: Man found guilty of child porn because he ran a Tor exit node

#495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A jury trial of your peers is a rare thing these days. This is how it would go down: The investigator says "who's been downloading CP?" and everyone looks at you. Probably because you're the weirdo internet geek among the family/roommates. They now have a suspect, and nothing you say then will convince them otherwise. They interview everyone separately leading the conversation to get statements about circumstantial t…

That sounds incredibly dysfunctional and rather scary. However, if I'm to be a bit sceptical, of the five felonies the cops found evidence for on your roommates computer, how many had he actually committed? Maybe he was just guilty but told you he's innocent. That's what most people do, what I'd do.

My roommate was only guilty of a misdemeanor afaik. At least two of the felony counts he was provably (to me) innocent of, as I knew he wasn’t where they claimed he was, but someone with more reputation than The Defendant’s College Roommate was willing to perjure themself, and it was their word against mine. Ironically the things he definitely wasn’t guilty of were the only parts of the plea deal. He pled guilty to things he didn’t do, just to put a max threshold on how bad the nightmare could get.

The other case was during the TLA infiltration of senior Tor leadership 5-ish years ago. It was very clearly driven by spy agency needs and I don’t feel comfortable sharing details online.

[Aside: you should consider Tor compromised. Use it as a VPN if you want, but don’t entrust your own safety or the safety of others to it.]

Re: Man found guilty of child porn because he ran a Tor exit node

#496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. This is a totally unrelated case that never made the news.

Countless examples of Nord supplying logs. They all have to keep logs or would be banned from offering services to US citizens.

Provide just one example. Am curious.

Re: Man found guilty of child porn because he ran a Tor exit node

#497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. This is a totally unrelated case that never made the news.

Countless examples of Nord supplying logs. They all have to keep logs or would be banned from offering services to US citizens.

Are you sure you aren't thinking UK?

In the US, you have to be a common carrier to be covered by CALEA. Internet services are not required to keep logs.

I could be wrong though.

Re: Man found guilty of child porn because he ran a Tor exit node

#498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> continual access to every major vpn provider increases the probability of getting caught Could you point out one example where CIA/NSA faced any real consequences after being caught doing something shady?

Can you please provide examples where they maintained continual access via hacking legal operations instead of serving entities with paperwork?

Tailored Access Division and Vault7.

And I'm sorry, you aren't entitled to any of that information one way or another it's CLASSIFIED.

Isn't your own government keeping secrets from you grand?

Re: Man found guilty of child porn because he ran a Tor exit node

#499

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know how you think the courts work but your roommates looking at you does not end up convicting anybody. Used as perhaps part of justifying probable cause or convincing people to say enough to do a more thorough search, sure.

A jury trial of your peers is a rare thing these days. This is how it would go down: The investigator says "who's been downloading CP?" and everyone looks at you. Probably because you're the weirdo internet geek among the family/roommates. They now have a suspect, and nothing you say then will convince them otherwise. They interview everyone separately leading the conversation to get statements about circumstantial t…

> [This more or less happened to a college roommate of mine (not CP though), and a Tor developer I knew through work.]

I'm getting a hunch that this happened in the US. Did this happen in the US?

Re: Man found guilty of child porn because he ran a Tor exit node

#500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which vpn was no-log-but-logging? I was shopping around for an alternative after mullvad blocked port forwarding, but it seems like no one else is as trustworthy. Not that I need it for my “attempt to port forward smash ultimate from within crummy hospital internet” purposes, but hey, principle of the thing and all that.

buy a cheap vps server with btc and setup your own vpn

Running your own VPN is the worst option though? There is no shared anonymity and all data is directly linked to one node, you.
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