Benjamin is quoted thusly:
In response to a law that passed the german legislative today, I will cease
production, development and distribution of ROCKate binaries and - maybe -
even source code soon.
The reasen is §202c StGB which states (IANAL translation):
"Producing, acquiring, selling, giving, distributing or making-accessible of
passwords or other access codes as well as computer programs whose aim it is
to commi a crime ... will be punished with up to one year in jail or a fine."
See also: http://www.phenoelit.de/202/202.html
Basically, these waters are too hot for me to tread in. Though the official
reading of the wall - reading from politicians that is - says that they only
target 'criminals' and there is no need to worry with the wording, nobody
knows when some underworked lawyer thinks he might go on to sue the ass off
of everyone in IT.
If someone wants to mirror/host/develop ROCKate further, be my guest. If you
need technical assistance, I can offer guidance, but I probably won't write
a single line of code anymore. Sorry.
Greetings,
BenjaminWhat a sad situation to see the fruit of a prior privacy-haven dying on the vine.
It doesn't end there. More German Tor node operators are shutting down under the increasing pressures.
Hi,I have forwarded such news to Hacktivismo, and we have been discussing it.
I am a german TOR admin ("knuffel"). I have running a mixmaster remailer too ("awxcxn").
Both were running on a dedicated root server.
Half a year ago I have had my first trouble with the german BKA. The hoster of my
server got a letter from the BKA and closed my server without any respect to the law.
I contact the press an a few days later the server was back and online.
A few month ago I got an anonymous tip, a telecommunication surveillance is/was
running against me and I am listed in a "known" database.
Over the last months, I tried to figure out, what happens.
I contact the data protection official of Germany for help.
Like me, he did not get any information because the prosecution
denied any information with the reason:
"Any information will compromise the security of Germany or one of its parts."
( § 19 Absatz 6 Bundesdatenschutzgesetz )
I compromise the security of Germany, seems I am a terrorist or something like that.
The anti-terrorism-law in Germany is not a joke, nothink I want to feel by myself.
I contact a lawyer and he said, this is not a game, it is real!
Conclusion: The TOR node "knuffel" is down and will not come back.
Please remove it from the directory. All my contact addresses and online
identities related to this kind of stuff will be closed next time.
I have a german website with some stuff about anonymity. It will go
down in 2-3 weeks. May be, some german gay want to download and
save some of my work. I will prepare an offline version of the website:
http://www.anon-web.de
Greetings
Karsten N.
Even the privacy-contemptuous Google has recognized there is a problem: http://halcy.de/past/2007/6/23/google_threatens_to_close_gmail/
There is actually a lawsuit and campaign to fight against the erosion of privacy. I suggest you check it out, especially if you are a Deutschlander:
http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/
1 comment:
Thanx for blogging the subject. Privacy is getting tougher especially when laws are designed for one country, that affect your rights in your own country. This tangle will make us all criminals eventually.
My issue and reason for a need of access to programs like Torpark is not so much privacy as it is free speech. For reasons I attribute to an over zealous police state mentality, much of what I blog is censored first and published second. There are thousands of ways for the fifth and sixth columns to throw a wrench into free speech and this is more that just obvious when you deal with a vendor like blogger. There are no end to the CIA thick googleteers that have infiltrated to block free speech.
Torpark has allowed me to participate once again as "just the threat" of me having this software, has allowed me more latitude to speak. Thank you.
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