On Monday 04 Nov 2013 04:10:55 Roger Dingledine wrote:
Today's interactions with ISPs influence Tor's future viability. So if people are accidentally exit relays without knowing it, I worry as much about the damage to the ISP's view of Tor as I do about the temporary hassle for the operator.
Exactly this. I recently made a list of Tor-tolerant VPS hosters, based on the offers available on Low End Box. Out of the 14 I found, three in their AUP stipulated "no exit" and one would allow Tor relays of any kind on their US servers only.
So out of all of the companies I found on LEB, only 11 allowed "full" Tor support, with the others permitting "partial" support. I think more and more hosting and service providers are seeing Tor as a source of legal hassle and don't want to be bothered with it.
If Tor is made non-exit by default, it can be explained to the hosters that Tor out-of-the box will not bring any legal stress their way. It may even encourage them to run a few relays themselves. :)
Best,