[Remops] Germany's Darknet Law

[Moritz Bartl]

On 10.06.19 18:30, Stefan Claas wrote:
> I think it is the same with the Darknet law, thats why I
> like to discuss this with (German speaking) remops. My little
> current understanding is once this law has passed that we no
> longer are allowed to run .onion servers or vpns etc.
> 
> I have not seen a written form yet of this law (proposal)
> and only have read some news articles in the net.

There are a bunch of laws around IT security currently being discussed.
NONE of them will outright outlaw onion services, running exit relays,
or anonymizing technology.

They will, however, very likely make it easier for law enforcement to
e.g. come and raid your place, take all your electronics, seize your
servers, etc., like what happened to us in mid-2018. [1] The courts will
very likely then drop the cases and you will not be convicted for anything.

Like always with these things, I highly recommend to directly read the
proposed law and the officially commentary [1], and ignore all the
bullshit and FUD people are spreading. ANYTHING ELSE you read is
speculative, German laws are fairly easy to read, and most people
hallucinate things based on some rumors spreading. You can and should
come up with your own interpretation.

Otherwise, this is a good starting point, a commentary by an actual
lawyer that is independent enough to have independent thought:
https://www.lto.de/recht/hintergruende/h/bundesrat-strafrecht-fuer-darknet-strafbarkeitsluecke-kriminalisierung/

The gist is: What they plan to do is "merely" to clarify that <quote>
"providing services whose purpose or activity is *aimed at* facilitating
or promoting the commission of unlawful acts"</quote> is illegal. It was
illegal, it is illegal, and it will always be illegal to provide
services specifically aimed at facilitating criminal activity.

The answer is easy enough: Running hidden services, running exits or any
other anonymizing technology is simply NOT meant to facilitate criminal
activity. It may be a side-effect, yes. But that is not what this law is
about. It is about what they call "platforms": darknet markets
facilitating the trade of illegal physical items.

This does not mean that it will not be harmful, and there are a lot of
reasons to be highly critical of most if not all of the debated changes
to the criminal law around what they believe is about "security".

To your original point: As a German, you are subject to German law. It
does not matter where you run your services. If, however, you merely
financially support some other third party, you don't automatically
become liable for what they do, and an entity outside of Germany will
not be directly affected by this proposed law. One such entity could
even, say, hire you or allow you to volunteer as their sysop.

Examples can be found in the copyright world: Check out the history of
AnyDVD, and OnlineTVrecorder. AnyDVD is now based in Belize and
contracts European developers, OnlineTVrecorder is currently legally
based on the Pacific island Vanuatu but run by German staff.

Moritz

[2] https://www.bundesrat.de/drs.html?id=33-19%28B%29
[1]
https://blog.torservers.net/20180704/coordinated-raids-of-zwiebelfreunde-at-various-locations-in-germany.html