There are lists of open, free proxy servers published daily on the internet. Often these lists containing warnings that in some cases the servers have probably been left open by mistake. Is it illegal to use such a server located in Yemen, China or The Sudan?
If the proxy server is intentionally set up as a free publically available server then there is nothing illegal about using it. Using one that someone just didn’t configure properly is illegal though.
Also, while using a proxy server in and of itself isn’t illegal, using one to intentionally spoof your IP address can get you in a lot of trouble. It’s one of the things that can get you banned from the SDMB, for example.
Since this topic does stray into territory forbidden here, I’m going to e-mail a mod to see what they want to do about this thread.
This is like the other wireless router stealing/sharing thread. The question becomes, then, how do you know if the system is intended for public access or not? The difference, though, is that there are very few public proxy servers for this purpose, whereas the intention of wireless access is sharing. But this is up for contention, too. I’d say avoid proxies to be safe, but feel free to use wireless servers. IANAL.
As far as the SDMB, is it against the rules to use an anonymizing proxy period, or just to try to hide my identity? As long as I’m signed on as me and not as a sock-puppet, does it really matter if I’m anonymizing or not?
why would any want to set up a proxy server? Whats in it for them?