Mesh/Legal
Organization structure
Sudo Mesh is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that focuses principally on education and facilitates the buildout of community-owned networks. Any given group that consents to a basic peering agreement (see below) can participate in co-creating the People's Open Network. This idea was inspired by wlan-slovenija.
Our EIN is 46-4226376.
More info (including copies of our 501c3 application) can be found at: https://github.com/sudomesh/bureaucracy
Assets
Mesh nodes are owned by the community that makes up the mesh, and are not the purview of Sudo Mesh once distributed.
Internet sharing
We're asking node owners to share their Internet connections with the mesh (if they have Internet). This poses two potential problems:
- Legal: Is the node owner liable if mesh users conduct illegal activity over the node owners' Internet connection?
- Terms of service: Some ISPs disallow sharing of Internet connections in their terms of service
Legal liability
The EFF has already done the research on potential legal liability of Internet connection sharing. They have launched a campaign to encourage people to open their wireless access points, the Open Wireless Movement. From the website:
Will opening my network make me liable for others' illegal actions?
This one is a bit more complicated, but the short answer is, "We don't think so."
The EFF has more extensive information on this issue here.
In addition to the reassurances by the EFF, sudomesh provides an additional layer of legal protection. All Internet-bound traffic from the mesh network is routed through VPN servers owned and operated by sudomesh (we call them exit nodes). When law enforcement see illegal activity, the source IP address will be listed as operated by sudo mesh, so they will contact us first and we can likely stop most legal inquiries at this point. This means that node owners won't have to deal with things such as routine DMCA notices.
This system was copied from wlan slovenja, the Slovenia mesh group.
Terms of service
Some ISPs allow sharing of Internet access and others do not. We provide node owners with a list of local ISPs that are known to allow sharing of Internet access and advise them that some ISPs may not allow sharing. The worst case scenario here is that one or more users get their Internet disconnected for terms of service violation.
The ISPs in the East Bay that allow Internet Connection sharing (that we know of) are:
Exit nodes
Volunteers with Sudo Mesh currently run two exit nodes - one at psychz.net and another out of a shared box at Hurricane Electric's location in Fremont.
With regards to running exit nodes, Noisebridge, another 501(c)3, already runs a Tor exit node which should be legally similar to a mesh exit node.
Some links of interest:
Peering agreement
In 2014, Sudo Mesh collaborated with the Free Network Foundation (no longer exists, built now-defunct Kansas City Freedom Network and set up wifi at Occupy Wall St), Guifi, Freifunk, Ninux, wlan-slovenija; Altermundi, MedellinLibre, Village Telco, Fédération FDN, and Réseau Libre to develop the [Network Commons License https://web.archive.org/web/20150715052305/https://commons.thefnf.org/index.php/Network_Commons_License], currently also used by NYCmesh.
Notes
If nodes are not owned by an organization, then some other way of agreement of how nodes should be operated should be made. One approach is to see each node as being peered with others and create agreements about how the rules the traffic should go over those links. Another is to extend such agreement into a license and also add rules about how the nodes themselves should behave.