Remotely disabling Tor nodes is a slippery slope. So it sounds like somebody is abusing the Tor network to do auction fraud, but that kind of stuff occasionally happens with a system like Tor. Should we filter exit nodes because we know this is going on? I wouldn't think anybody would answer yes to that.
We already can disable nodes by marking them 'invalid'. I for one would never run Tor if I knew that directory servers could run code on my machine or tell my Tor client to shut down. As for disabling these nodes because they're zombied, I again don't think this is Tor's place. If somebody wants to contact the ISP or the owner of the zombie machines that's one thing but I think as long as there's a computer routing traffic for us that isn't malicious, we should keep it. I don't think there should be a 'tor police' that goes around determining if a node is legitimately obtained or not. Ringo Alec Burgess wrote: > > punkle jones (punkle.jo...@gmail.com) wrote (in part) (on 2009-06-29 > at 10:19): >> Unlurking for the first time, I think. >> >> Why not join forces with a popular freeware/shareware product like >> Aim or Winamp, with an "uncheck to opt out" option and a description >> of tor. Such a bundle could be preset to relay, and there's got to >> be a magic bandwidth that most western users could tolerate. Is it >> ethically wrong to insert TOR into the userspace of the less-informed >> by associating it with a popular (hopefully not unsavory) download? >> Does this concept fly in the face of free will? Is it just too >> sneaky? It's not like you'd be putting five new toolbars into their >> browser. > > I've been following this thread with interest. From what I've read our > best guess as to why other users are installing the package which uses > Tor is to provide the means to circumvent the restrictions on quickly > creating multiple accounts for a particular auction group (*Taobao)*. > Correct so far? Presumably the effect of doing this are likely to be > unwelcome to *Taobao.com * management and/or other non-participating > users/bidders/sellers? > > Question: ignoring any possible bad reputation this brings to the TOR > community at large does this have the side-effect of increasing exit > nodes and thereby providing more capacity to everyone? Or is typical > usage for those who want to create the multiple accounts just to open > them briefly and then cease immediately with no net noticeable effect on > the TOR network as a whole? >