If the cops come knocking, just make sure you're not actually doing anything illegal, because processing encrypted data is not. All your computer is doing is taking in encrypted data, fucking with it, and spitting it back out. You don't see the contents of it. You can't know what is happening, so neither can they.

Sincerely, long-time hoster of Tor and I2P nodes in Denmark.

I2P is an alternative encrypted routing system. Legally and technically not much different than the normal internet.

If:

Nefarious Actor -> Router -> <{internet router}> <{internet router}> <{internet router}> <{internet router}> <{internet router}> -> Router -> Nefarious Webserver

is a routing chain wherein each <{internet router}> is legally protected because it is indiscriminately acting to forward traffic regardless of nefarious activity, then:

Nefarious Actor -> router -> <{i2p router}> <{internet router}> <{i2p router}> <{internet router}> <{i2p router}> <{internet router}> <{i2p router}> -> Router -> nefarious website

Would be equally protected. You are not doing anything different, you are simply acting as an additional router, indiscriminately passing traffic along.

In the US, according to recent supreme court cases, this is constitutionally and legally protected - you are providing an intermediary service for general use and thus are protected the same way an internet carrier is. Most EU countries have something similar, and the EU has special protections for smaller service providers under the DSA. Since you are closest to an ISP under German law, just a very, very, very small one; you should be legally protected simply because you are not actively participating in nefarious activity, just users of your service might be.

Vaguely based on:

https://freedomhouse.org/country/germany/freedom-net/2024

https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_urhdag/index.html

https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/digital-services-act

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-171_bq7d.pdf

I'm #Big curious about this too, and its the primary reason I haven't set up a permanent node.

Mostly commenting so I know to revisit the thread, but here's hoping for some quality responses for all our sakes.

From https://www.anwalt.org/tor-browser/

German law gives the citizen a certain amount of room for manoeuvre in safeguarding his own rights on the Internet. Encryption, proxy connections and other measures that also use the darknet and Tor browser are legal. Encryption of data and connections is even described in the laws on data protection as a necessary protective measure.

The setting up and operation of a highly encrypted network is not prohibited. This is exactly what the Onion network represents: A parallel network to the well-known Internet, which redirects the otherwise direct requests and thus obscures the sender. In addition to the redirection, relatively secure encryption methods are added, so that none of the transmitters ever have the plain text in front of them.

I2p, unlike Tor, has the advantages that it is less known and the nodes are not in a public list; as an i2p node operator, you would have enough time to react if the darknets were to be taken against.