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from the land-of-the-free-and-home-of-the-easily-coerced dept.
The Kilton Library in Lebanon, New Hampshire, had been hosting an exit relay on the Tor network since July as part of a pilot program to safeguard citizens' privacy online.
After meeting with [local cops, tipped off by the US Department of Homeland Security], however, the librarians have taken the box offline over fears it was being used for criminal activity.
[...] Kilton's exit node was the pilot for an effort by the Library Freedom Project to equip local libraries in the US with Tor nodes that could be accessed by users in areas where internet traffic is censored and closely monitored.
ProPublica claims that the police did not threaten any action against the library, but merely informed them of the possibility that their Tor node could be used for criminal activity.
The library's board of trustees will vote later this month on whether to bring the node back online.
[...] The Electronic Frontier Foundation said it was starting a campaign to flood library trustees with letters of support for the node in an effort to get the Tor box back up and running in the Kilton Library.
Additional reporting here.
SoylentNews is available through Tor, as well. Here is our .onion link. -Ed.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 12 2015, @04:55PM
For fucks sake, they took it down, pending a vote later this month. That's how things are supposed to work (when real potentially dangerous things are involved.)
This is no different than an injunction you get pending the outcome of a trial, only done voluntarily and not under legal threat. If someone says you're doing somehting more dangerious than you realize, it's good to stop and think. Esp. if the costs for waiting are low (and they are low... or even negative here).
Imagine the states after the vote. One, reimplemented. You get two news cycles for TOR, the second one being that a group of people decided it was well worth it. Worth two weeks of one less exit. Two, left deactivated. Then not waiting was the right thing to do.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Saturday September 12 2015, @05:23PM
"For fucks sake, they took it down, pending a vote later this month. That's how things are supposed to work"
Not quite. Not exactly. I do note the ending portion of your statement, but come on, an exit node is not "real potential danger". Not unless the librarian was threatened with, "I can't guarantee the length of your life, unless you cooperate with us."
But, back to the quoted part of your sentence. The way things are SUPPOSED TO WORK, in a democratic society, is that the status quo remains status UNTIL THE VOTE. That is, the prior authorization and authority isn't hastily trampled on, then put up for a vote. The vote comes first.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 12 2015, @09:57PM
the status quo remains status UNTIL THE VOTE
To paraphrase a post up the thread, when Runaway1956 and I agree that something is being done all wrong, it's a sure bet they're doing it wrong.
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Saturday September 12 2015, @10:43PM
That's how things are supposed to work (when real potentially dangerous things are involved.)
Neither privacy or free speech are "real potentially dangerous things", so I guess that's not how things should have happened in this case.
(Score: 1) by number11 on Wednesday September 16 2015, @04:21PM
And today, news is that the Tor exit node is up and running again.
Thanks, Lebanon Library Board!