Every paragraph of this piece has me yelling "NEVER TALK TO THE POLICE" at my monitor. Had they wanted to, it would have been incredibly easy for the FBI to spin any of the many quotes in this article into a "false statement" and an insta-felony, just out of spite.<p>If you're going to run an exit node, find an attorney <i>beforehand</i>. You don't necessarily need to put them on retainer, but figure out who you're going to call instead of walking into an FBI field office like, frankly, an idiot.
It's worth noting that if you want to support Tor exit nodes but do not want to run your own, you can donate to the Noisetor project. Noisebridge, a 501c3 nonprofit, has sponsored an exit node for several years now:
<a href="http://www.noisetor.net" rel="nofollow">http://www.noisetor.net</a>
This is actually a good piece. It sticks to the facts without an evident attempt to push an agenda either for or against Tor.<p>The operator ("Richard") seems relatable to a fellow tech like myself, and by the end of reading this I found myself thinking, "Maybe I should run an exit node too, since I have used Tor quite a bit".<p>All in all, a good piece.
> For this reason, and others listed on the Tor Project website, operators are strongly advised to only run their exits remotely, by renting out server space.<p>Better yet, do that anonymously. Always work via Tor. Use a false identity. Pay with well-mixed Bitcoins. Observe good OPSEC.
It's a moral responsibility to cooperate with law enforcement when they are trying to track criminals like pedophiles, terrorists or similarly malicious persons. I don't think there should be any argument there, Tor operator or not.<p>However, we have every right to anonymity and to encrypt our communications and data such that only those we want to see it can. So what to do?<p>Perhaps Tor operators can perform some act of vigilantism and expose criminals like the above without incriminating themselves through booting out and releasing the data of the pedophiles, terrorists and what have you.<p>Being a revolutionary and a lover of freedom is not a crime, and the criminals who give us a bad name are making it one.