

What happened when we got subpoenaed over our Tor exit node - waffle_ss
http://boingboing.net/2015/08/04/what-happened-when-the-fbi-sub.html

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patrickod
Noisetor (sub-project of the Noisebridge hackerspace in SF) received an
identical subpoena, and had the same results. We contacted our legal counsel
and subsequently the FBI to explain the whole "we can't provide this
information because tor" at which point they dropped our requirement to
testify.

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grubles
If you want to run an exit node then this is, I think, required reading:
[https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tips-running-exit-node-
mini...](https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tips-running-exit-node-minimal-
harassment)

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stevecalifornia
This is barely content. "We got subpoenaed and our lawyer told the FBI we
didn't have any logs and they never contacted us again." Ok, great.

~~~
tn13
I think this was an extremely useful thing to know. Having a good lawyer on
your side helps. Thats is the lesson I learned.

~~~
hisabness
how do you know the lawyer is good? i agree her letter was effective in this
instance.

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justonepost
"And that was it" .. so far. I think they're getting a little ahead of
themselves to assume they're in the clear simply because they haven't heard
anything.

Unless they did hear something extremely definitive and simply decided not to
share that with us in the way they did the command letter.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
Let's see. The subpoena was issued on June 12, 2015. They were supposed to
appear before the grand jury on July 1, 2015. The article was posted on August
4, 2015.

So they clearly missed appearing before the grand jury on July 1, and didn't
get arrested for it. But yeah, it's a bit too soon to assume that no other
shoes are going to drop...

~~~
wtallis
There's only one other shoe that _could_ drop, which would be an assertion
that hosting a Tor exit node is illegal in general. I doubt the Feds want to
argue that directly where it could be directly opposed.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
No, the other shoe could be that they get a subpoena for all their logs of any
form on the Tor machine or any machine connected to it, or something of that
order.

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mirimir
Just to be totally sure that nothing is retained, one can use Tor-ramdisk from
CD on a diskless box.[0]

[0] [http://opensource.dyc.edu/tor-ramdisk](http://opensource.dyc.edu/tor-
ramdisk)

~~~
Sami_Lehtinen
That's truly minimal package. That's great. Less than 7 megabytes. I'm just
way too used to see bloat.

~~~
mirimir
Just to be totally clear, it's a Linux distro :)

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JoshTriplett
I'd be interested to see the actual subsequent discussion with the FBI
following the initial subpoena.

~~~
rtkwe
There is a pretty decent chance there isn't any. Once the FBI got the Boing
Boing response letter they probably checked with their tech people to see if
it was true that there'd be no data and/or that it IS a TOR exit node and sent
a simple 'nevermind you don't have to appear' letter. This matches with how
the article is written, 'we sent this letter letter and that was it.'

~~~
JoshTriplett
The official response to Boing Boing (the resulting "nevermind you don't have
to appear" letter) is exactly what I'd like to see.

~~~
rtkwe
The letter BB sent in response is right there in the article. It's the bit
that starts with "Special Agent XXXXXX."

~~~
JoshTriplett
The official response isn't, though. (I edited my previous comment to clarify
what I meant.)

~~~
rtkwe
Ah, misunderstood your original comment. It's probably nothing very
interesting. All that is required is something like this. BB probably got
something similar.

[https://www.eff.org/document/letter-confirming-subpoena-
with...](https://www.eff.org/document/letter-confirming-subpoena-withdrawal)

~~~
JoshTriplett
Thanks! I've never actually seen a letter like that; I appreciate the link to
a sample one.

