Through an agent 12 Tor exit VPSs ran flat chat on the Roubaix site for three months. Copyright threats came twice that I know of only because they changed the ip address saying there'd been a letter.  The 12 only exits because I couldn't keep up with the goats stopping them very frequently.  Changing accounts I think was the reason.

From that experience I took it that the reality was quite different from the hyperbole within the Tor world I have encountered.  So I just got more VPSs and had a go!  Some I have won debates with and quietly they have let Tor run.  Others I have mad bold idealistic statements to about Tor and its value and they have let it run.  One helped sort out repositories and installation and gave me three months free.  Five have contradicted the stated policy and banned Tor anything two months into an annual subsription.

The restricted exit policy may be the reason I have had no further letters.

Have a go and be prepared to put a good argument. 

Robert

-----Original Message-----
From: tor@gmx.info
Sent: Sat, 25 Jan 2014 16:15:21 +0100 (CET)
To: tor-relays@lists.torproject.org
Subject: [tor-relays] A little bedtime story about relays and OVH

Hi list,
 
as I am in the progress of looking for a dedicated box to host a high volume relay on,
as one of my current Tor-VPSs has some TCP limitations so I took it down. After doing
some reasearch, my shortlist came up with OVH. After reading their (awfully translated:
Babelfish French to German anyone?) AUP/TOS, I found that Tor nodes in any flavor
are forbidden on their network. So I got curious and checked the pertinent Tor node
lists for boxes within AS-OVH.
 
To my surprise, several dozen servers happily popped up as a result. I got even more
curious and called the German affiliate about their policy regarding proxies and Tor
nodes in general. To my surprise, the person there seemed familiar with what Tor is
and had some insights about the policy as well.
 
He told me what I read in their special rules about root servers and there are no
exceptions. So, I inquired about all the nodes already in place within their AS. Guy
didn't break a sweat and calmly explained that there are special contracts for them.
 
And therein lies the rub: if you want to place a Tor node, exit or relay, inside their
network, you have to explain your intent, security measures, shoe size etc. in writing.
Apparently, you also need to log the connections for the authorities so they can deal
with *insert high profile evildoer reason here* should the need arise.
Anyone with an OVH server reading this? Care to comment?
 
What to conclude from that? I am not too sure myself. Ban AS16276 from the Tor network?
This would probably enlist copycats who are afraid to deal of the legal consequences
and soon every big hoster is banned. Wouldn't hurt for some, mind you ;) After that, the
small ones will likely get zeroed in by the authorities and a lack of financial resources will
be the end to them.
 
Thoughts?