Yesterday, I wrote a blog post describing how I had set up TOR to run on a hosting account that I have. Today, I arrived home to find two DMCA takedown notices. It wasn’t unexpected. In TOR’s Abuse FAQ they warned about this.

Somebody uses Tor to download a Vin Diesel movie, and your ISP gets a DMCA takedown notice. See EFF's Tor DMCA Response Template, which explains why your ISP can probably ignore the notice without any liability. [Arbitrary ports]

Fortunately, they have a Response template for Tor relay maintainer to ISP written by the Electronic Freedom Foundation. In the preface, they not that their “template letter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice”. With that caveat in mind, I took the template, added the appropriate information and a postscript pointing to my blog post about using TOR on Ubuntu in response to the crackdown of Internet access in Iran. I also asked if they had any comments on DMCA takedown notices and TOR.

So far, I’ve received an automated email, as well as an email from a person on the support desk saying that they have passed my reply on to the appropriate person. It is my hope and expectation that they will respond wisely. I will keep everyone informed.