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Domain: freenetproject.org

Stories and comments across the archive that link to freenetproject.org.

Comments · 750

  1. Re:Is Freenet a Lost Cause? by MisterBad · · Score: 3 · on Freenet's First Employee
    So, I'm not going to say that that's not a plausible scenario. But doesn't that mean that people who are sympathetic with information freedom should be INSTALLING and USING Freenet right now?

    Freenet has become a fine platform for Web publishing, for example. If you've got a Web site (ANY Website -- even pictures of your cat) you should REALLY REALLY read the Website publishing HOWTO. It gives step-by-step instructions on how to put your site into Freenet.

    Remember, back in the day, the World Wide Web and other Internet services had the same outlaw reputation that peer-to-peer systems like Freenet have right now. It was only because many "ordinary" people put their "ordinary" content on the Web that it became an acceptable, in fact indispensible, computing platform.

    We can do that with Freenet, if we work at it. But it takes thousands of individual efforts to make it happen. If you think there's a potential for a bad future for Freenet, you need to start helping, rather than resigning yourself to Yet More Totalitarian Bullshit.

  2. The OS Warz? by Caraig · · Score: 5 · on Freenet's First Employee

    Freenet is a darn good thing, and something we should all support in whatever ways we can. We MUST preserve free speech (not neccessarilly free-as-in-'FIRE!' speech, of course) on the net, if nothing else, and Freenet garauntees it.

    I would like to entreat the guiding hands behind Freenet, however, to consider the greater audience out there. Yes, the project is working with Open Source tools, and that's a good thing! However, it must be accessable to everyone. They can't afford to alienate any potential users of Freenet. For that reason, calling the directory that the Windows usage guide in, 'Freenet for Fools,' could be considered insulting to Windows users.

    I know, this is /., where anyone who relies entirely on a Windows machine is a chump, and just SO needs flaming change to get on the clue bus, hurled at him at supercavitating speeds. Come on, let's think about this maturely. I hate Microsoft as much as any other person who's had to clean up after BSODs (sometimes I can see a blue residue on the screen after rebooting...) but MS machines are Out There, and people will be using them.

    Freenet essentially calling a fair amount of their user base 'fools' to their face will just turn those users away. "Oh, more elitist Linux users," they'll sigh. "If I join Freenet I'll just be exposed to more of that elitist crap. Screw it, I'm not putting up with that." And one more potential Freenet node disappears.

    Good riddance to bad rubbish? You miss the point of Freenet. Freenet is Free Speech without harrassment. Free Speech without fear of being taken down by a government. Free Speech without fear of being dragged into a court. (And believe me, there are some courts in this world where you won't even have the courtesy of being ordered to bend over a barrel; a bullet in the back of the head is far more likely.)

    Freenet should not involved in the OS warz. Maybe I'm blowing it out of proportion, but remember, this is coming from a grey-matta-flambe helpdesk drudge. That's all I have to say. =)

    ---
    Chief Technician, Helpdesk at the End of the World

  3. Re:Thanks guys. by gmz · · Score: 3 · on Prevailing Against Michigan Censorship

    Now my kids will be exposed to all of the filth the Internet has to offer.

    Better that than "unrestricted censorship" in the future! Or, as Mike Godwin put it:

    "I worry about my child and the Internet all the time, even though she's too young to have logged on yet. Here's what I worry about. I worry that 10 or 15 years from now, she will come to me and say 'Daddy, where were you when they took freedom of the press away from the Internet?'" --Mike Godwin, Electronic Frontier Foundation (from the FreeNet-Project's web page)

  4. Re:A little early to call the champion by flink · · Score: 1 · on P2P vs. RIAA: RIAA Wins

    Freenet gaurantees anonymous publication under most circumstances and anonymous retrieval under practically all circumstances. Distributers (i.e. node opperators) are only as safe as the law allows them to be and their ability to afford lawyers to defend themselves holds out. Personally if the RIAA sent a letter to me saying I had to shut down my node or face prosecution, I wouldn't have the resources to defend myself if they chose to prosecute.

    Read Ian's paper on the subject if you don't believe me.

  5. A little early to call the champion by Borealis · · Score: 5 · on P2P vs. RIAA: RIAA Wins

    This article is pure bunk. I've lost track of how many file sharing programs I've seen announced in recent months. The internet is a system designed to share information. The only way to prevent information (like mp3s) from being shared is to shut down the entire net.

    It was pretty apparent to me that the big names in early file sharing (Napster, MP3.com etc) would go down. They had pretty, bright red targets painted on their foreheads.

    However, now that it is started there will be no stopping it. You can filter for music and people will just encrypt it before sending. You can shut down central servers and people will go peer to peer. You can publish FUD about the death of music sharing and people will ridicule you.

    Bah, just go to freenet.

  6. gnutella/freenet by Greg+W. · · Score: 2 · on P2P vs. RIAA: RIAA Wins

    Jesus, what a depressing piece.

    At least she didn't mention Freenet. Let Gnutella face the fire while Freenet gets off the ground.

    I wonder whether she actually knows about Freenet, and chose not to mention it by name. She said, "Collective projects that are free from any corporate ties are still flourishing, and small companies with nifty ideas lurk on the fringes." And from reading previous pieces by her, I know she's got more than half a clue when it comes to file-sharing.

  7. Commercial mp3 entities? by ideut · · Score: 2 · on P2P vs. RIAA: RIAA Wins
    We won't need commercial mp3 entities when we've got freenet

    The only trouble is, development is being held back by sloppy, haphazard software "engineering" and creeping featurism (before the basic network is even functional).

    The lists are flooded with the technically illiterate, who are just along for the ride, and the politically extreme, who want to "destroy global capitalism".

    As far as I can see, what was once the most promising p2p platform is now stewing in its own faeces and will fizzle out gradually, to be replaced by an ever changing plethora of http-based systems.

    The developers don't even know whether freenet is a Java program or a network protocol.

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  8. Commercial mp3 entities? by ideut · · Score: 2 · on P2P vs. RIAA: RIAA Wins
    We won't need commercial mp3 entities when we've got freenet

    The only trouble is, development is being held back by sloppy, haphazard software "engineering" and creeping featurism (before the basic network is even functional).

    The lists are flooded with the technically illiterate, who are just along for the ride, and the politically extreme, who want to "destroy global capitalism".

    As far as I can see, what was once the most promising p2p platform is now stewing in its own faeces and will fizzle out gradually, to be replaced by an ever changing plethora of http-based systems.

    The developers don't even know whether freenet is a Java program or a network protocol.

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  9. Re:Catch 22 and killer app check-list by hardburn · · Score: 1 · on EFF Seeks Examples Of Legit P2P Use

    Actualy, the above link is a bit too basic. See http://www.freenetproject.org/oldsite/index.php?pa ge=keys for a much more verbose description.


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  10. Re:Catch 22 and killer app check-list by hardburn · · Score: 1 · on EFF Seeks Examples Of Legit P2P Use

    As another poster mentioned, Freenet is actualy older then Gnutella. In Freenet, we just prefer to think about what we're doing first before implementing every idea that comes forward. This makes development slower, but it's a better network overall.

    Oh, and yes, your idea about "searching for a [hash] instead of a name" has been in Freenet for a long time. It's called a "Content Hash Key" (CHK). See http://www.freenetproject.org/index.php?page=keygu ide for details (section 0.3.1).


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  11. Sounds like no publisher anonymity by Sanity · · Score: 2 · on Cult of the Dead Cow Going P2P?
    It sounds like it doesn't provide publisher anonymity, just reader anonymity (although this based on an article that is pretty low on detail). It is also unusual that there is no comparision given with Freenet given that this is a very high-profile anti-censorship P2P system which has been in development for quite a while and is in relatively wide use (new node every 3 minutes, total of 700,000 downloads).

    Some comparison with prior work please.....

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  12. Re:A 2nd Internet? by sracer9 · · Score: 4 · on Cult of the Dead Cow Going P2P?

    I believe that that's what the folks over at the freenet project are attempting to do.

  13. Freenet? by GFish4 · · Score: 2 · on Cult of the Dead Cow Going P2P?

    What's wrong with Freenet? Wouldn't it be smarter to assist an ongoing anonymous, decentralized p2p network (which sounds substantially more advanced than Peekabooty) rather than spawn off another one? --Greg

  14. government censorship by Vintermann · · Score: 1 · on Scientists Demand Open Access to Research

    "some publishers resent a central, NIH-run archive like PubMed Central because they fear that technical failures would affect all users at once, and because the government might impose restrictions in the future, for example, by ruling not to publish certain kinds of research."

    Do you think this arguemnt is valid? True, it's not so long ago cryptologic research had problems in this area. But can that come back? I hope not, and I think not. Even if it did, wouldn't the net make censorship harder? Consider freenet.

  15. Privacy is dead - live with it by Sanity · · Score: 3 · on The Value Of Privacy
    Advances in communication technology, just as it is making it more difficult to control copyrighted information, will also make privacy more and more difficult to enforce. Consider a world where there are cameras on every street (perhaps privately owned), which can track everything you do in public. This could be placed into a public database, or on to a system like Freenet.

    Of course it is not all bad, since these exact same tools could be used to monitor the monitors. The police may be able to use these tools to watch us, but we will also be able to use them to watch the police.

    Rather than wasting time trying to prevent application of this technology (which will ultimately be futile), we should be trying to ensure that everyone has access to it.

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  16. Time to start using freenet. by barracg8 · · Score: 4 · on Europe To Adopt Strict Internet Copyright Law
    • Technical copies on the net
      The Directive provides an obligatory exception for service providers, telecommunications operators and certain others in limited circumstances for particular acts of reproduction which are considered technical copies. A satisfactory balance has been found for what has been an extremely controversial issue. There are many conditions to be fulfilled before the exemption applies. In particular, those acts of reproduction have to form an essential part of a technological process and take place in the context of a transmission in a network. The Directive ensures therefore that there will be effective operation of the World Wide Web for those who place copyrighted material on the net and those who transmit or carry such material.
    So caching web proxies are exempt - now this is a only an EU directive, not a piece of legislation, so we will have to wait and see how this is drafted into law in individual countries, but there might be a nice big loophole for freenet here :-)

    G.

  17. Napster as Killer App by zane · · Score: 2 · on Clay Shirky Defends P2P
    The possibility of P2P networks has been around for ages, at least at Universities and other persistently connected places. Having been introduced to the Net really for the first time upon entering college (in 1993), it didn't occur to be that my computer was really any different from anyone elses. But I think that's really the way a lot of people do think about it. Here's my little desktop machine, I use to to browse the web, send e-mail, write paperes, play games. I turn it off at night, and that's that. People (not-tech people) drop their jaw in wonder when I tell them I run a webserver from under my desk. Or when I connect to my home computer from work. I am similarly in shock when they "forget to bring a file from home". But none of this is cool enough or inconvenient enough to make people change the way they use the machines.

    Enter Napster. Suddenly, everyone has a reason to think of their computer as no different from all the other computers (even if they are going through a centralized server). It becomes clear that there is great utility in being connected, and having access to other machines, both upstream and downstream. Now that the populus has gotten a taste of this, I doubt they'll go back. Napster will be re-implemented as Espra over Freenet, and given the much more generalized architecture, Peer to Peer networks will branch out into all kinds of new spheres of influence. I can't wait to watch it happen!

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  18. Just for the fun of it by hardburn · · Score: 1 · on Does Peer-to-Peer Suck?

    I work on the "Everything Over Freenet" (EOF) project, and have been involved in Freenet to one degree or another for just over a year. I don't do this because I think it's going to change the world, or it's going to help Chinese dissidents get their message out, or anything like that (although these things would be a definate plus).

    I do it because Freenet presents many facinating problems to solve.

    That, I think, is the most important thing for any Free Software developer to have: A lot of facinating problems. I went to Freenet specificly because I beleived that Ian Clarke's solution to the problem of getting an anoynomous, decentralized means of broadcasting unrestriced speech to be the most interesting.


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  19. Re:dot domains won't be around much longer (i hope by emag · · Score: 2 · on ICANN Limits Terms Of VeriSign Domain Control

    Interesting concept. I'm not sure how you'd get around one company/organization running the centralized directory for this, though.

    I saw in Verisign Usurps .com someone was working on a DNS system that used Freenet to distribute DNS around the net, but then it becomes a chicken-and-egg problem (again).

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  20. News for nerds by RealUlli · · Score: 1 · on Slashdot During War?
    What would happen? IMHO, just about nothing, at least on /.

    Reporting on wars is not the purpose of /., otherwise we would have heard about the war in Chechenia (sp?), in Macedonia, in Bosnia, and probably a whole lot of other locations.

    Hopefully, publications will spring up, possibly using part of the /. technology, like the moderation system, but where everyone can post, and whose threads will later be sort of expired, based on a function of total score and time online. Hopefully, nothing will be deleted in that process, just archived in a searchable way.

    Also, there might be news services that use the freenet technology (http://www.freenetproject.org/) to distribute the news, while achieving some level of resistance against disaster, be it censorship or weapon effects.

    Regards, Ulli

  21. Aren't you thinking of Freenet? by Sanity · · Score: 2 · on Interview with Bruce Maggs
    Freenet does largely what you describe, in a logarithmically scalable manner (which differenciates it from Gnutella which isn't very scalable). Freenet caches data automatically, moving it closer to demand, and replicating popular data, where as Gnutella only shares what is already on your machine. If you are interested in learning more I suggest reading this paper.

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  22. Re:Colocation by E1ven · · Score: 2 · on Avoiding The Content Apocalypse?

    There is a system being implemented to distribute websites. Freenet.

    Using systems in place on freenet, you can upload a website, and have it change daily. (though the updates aren't great yet)

    It is cached on computers around the world, according to who is reading the sight.

    Although a lot of people want to use freenet for a napster replacement, it's real use is as you described. as they say on their website "Re-wiring the internet"

    --

    This message brought to you by Colin Davis

  23. slow server; try freenet by Cardhore · · Score: 1 · on Tile Based Rendering and Accelerated 3D
    This article is mirrored on the freenet.

    Check out

    freenet:CHK@qANifG8baVSFWd-ZsW5kvFVjcwcOAwE,ZXRUsp PkxMFRzwRsJdrpqg

  24. Get it from the Freenet by Cardhore · · Score: 1 · on Nautilus 1.0 Released Unto The World
    Nautilus RPMS are available for RedHat Linux--on Freenet.. Check out:

    freenet:KSK@nautilus-redhat7-i386-rpms.txt

    Here are the direct key links:

    ammonite-1.0.0-1_eazel_1.i386.rpm Inserted Key : freenet:CHK@fpU7z4lSAFjTURdT8rXrtaFZqG8OAwE,pmcahK Q7zl0aCgpI8h5x-g

    control-center-1.3.90-0_plain_0.i386.rpm Inserted Key : freenet:CHK@RgbVw1SmnWDvcpn~cl-btTtO6VMOAwE,W5qYPv khGmpHroAqw~TMPA

    control-center-devel-1.3.90-0_plain_0.i386.rpm Inserted Key : freenet:CHK@cKPcQ8QvwSH2E5xhYqBnU-lUbQYOAwE,e~8RpI kDbO8cJVyoI-vScg

    freetype-2.0.1-4.i386.rpm Inserted Key : freenet:CHK@TcWNe-Yr41giV7~ff5K4XAzv8jYOAwE,8u8JQD wpYc3x7vGJzbnOkg

    gdk-pixbuf-0.10.0-0_plain_0.i386.rpm Inserted Key : freenet:CHK@ADveeR7JRz8iiTIqEhtncRp-HOwOAwE,CazfdL eTbJlZDa0Akqj-ew

    gdk-pixbuf-devel-0.10.0-0_plain_0.i386.rpm Inserted Key : freenet:CHK@8Qhxjke~3mFlwDPi4O-DKPEqMI8OAwE,isdFBt SKUkuuq1GN1r30hQ

    gnome-user-docs-1.3.0-1.noarch.rpm Inserted Key : freenet:CHK@BwUcfEOeDQpmphuJQHPPxBMd21gOAwE,6vcjYz XsEWvhBPhIcKJHSg

    gnome-vfs-1.0-1_eazel_1.i386.rpm Inserted Key : freenet:CHK@m6MjzR8euUazO6gDSDoP5mrKbg4OAwE,jNhZsc xH9Lrs10ocM2ux5A

    medusa-0.5.0-1_eazel_1.i386.rpm Inserted Key : freenet:CHK@qTOt6PBsiZjZdShnNcqd~WfNGVwOAwE,mj38w3 ZzMF7c9c3~VninMw

    mozilla-0.8-2.i386.rpm Inserted Key : freenet:CHK@~99Yq7pv7Cp8MCOTGnPYowWc7cwQAwE,H3x0h2 bn43oJXRXjnrodjw

    mozilla-mail-0.8-2.i386.rpm Inserted Key : freenet:CHK@9UxOWz571QiotsV6oKaX3wkQNQIOAwE,aaYGfB A-RICKwFyiJ1RrVQ

    mozilla-psm-0.8-2.i386.rpm Inserted Key : freenet:CHK@IioO3cW1kS94D2qUC9~b81t2V20OAwE,NbhXq8 I5~BFT7WGGhqHZYQ

    nautilus-1.0-1_eazel_3.i386.rpm Inserted Key : freenet:CHK@~CqJgQmUt4OI5OCZLU2qPo~QaasQAwE,y06WhI wVJ~72UWbLzEE2sA

    nautilus-extras-1.0-1_eazel_3.i386.rpm Inserted Key : freenet:CHK@aPPc4S-ErW5LDbERMf770TB2HNILAwE,O5qFTT fQ7UMHC7uWREDZQQ

    nautilus-mozilla-1.0-1_eazel_3.i386.rpm Inserted Key : freenet:CHK@LOPsj50fV7dfvtqG1~lxFnz4H1MOAwE,f5a4iD W5v~G6mz9bXFJTbg

    nautilus-suggested-1.0-1_eazel_3.i386.rpm Inserted Key : freenet:CHK@skiCs4KUgLCcguK1K0G1NZc-BG4MAwE,U2lZoC r0Krdrp6rVh38nXA

    nautilus-trilobite-1.0-1_eazel_3.i386.rpm Inserted Key : freenet:CHK@JNYyTVlKeAc2jVNTzIy4KsckIO8OAwE,60RKk7 Gf6nd2qBw0y6W-Mg

    oaf-0.6.5-0_plain_0.i386.rpm Inserted Key : freenet:CHK@lnr4XdTJFXupmrEmNigaAfIMBHgOAwE,NCR-WE AU8sykC~dvUdiMMw

    scrollkeeper-0.1.4-1.i386.rpm Inserted Key : freenet:CHK@s4PbJL4iZPGkJPeygluVVYMt-dUOAwE,-VyyY8 CKJpuQp5CYvESaRQ

  25. -1 Uninformed by Sanity · · Score: 2 · on Peer-to-Peer Overview
    You really don't seem to understand how any of the P2P systems work, particularly Freenet. I suggest you read this paper to get better informed.

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  26. Freenet mirror of 2.3.0 by Sanity · · Score: 4 · on QT 2.3, With Anti-Aliased Fonts
    The Trolltech copy of the 2.3.0 source is really slow, so I have mirrored it in Freenet for those who want it. Freenet users can find it at freenet:KSK@qt-x11-2.3.0.tar.gz.

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  27. do your homework by Sanity · · Score: 2 · on Napster Adding "Protection Layer"
    you really don't understand much about Freenet do you? I suggest you find out before exposing your ignorance again.

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  28. Re:Okay, lets analyse this by hardburn · · Score: 2 · on VeriSign Usurps .com

    I'm free this weekend so I don't mind doing it.....

    Well, I'm working on a DNS server that stores its cache in Freenet. This means the cache can be called up by any other such DNS server. This elimanates the need for a tree-based DNS structure and its centralized control.


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  29. Re:Isn't this irrelevant? by jacoplane · · Score: 1 · on OpenNaps Targeted; Gnutella "Validated"

    Yeah fine, Gnutella has technical problems, but as you say, the RIAA will have an impossible task shutting it down in court. But then there are always alterenatives to Gnutella that have less technical problems. (Freenet, anyone?)

  30. thinking of Freenet? by biftek · · Score: 1 · on New Peer-to-Peer Designs
    AFAIK, gnutella doesn't have (currently at least) anonymous transfers, it is a straight point to point connection.

    Freenet does allow for anonymity of certainly the provider, and possibly the person downloading as well. The main problem with Freenet is searching for files, which is near non-existant. Basically, you need to know the url to find out if a file exists. This leads to problems like with DeCSS and 2600, where sites are prosecuted simply for providing those URLs.

    Perhaps if ALPINE could be combined with Freenet to provide improved searching, it could be interesting.

  31. Wrong link by hardburn · · Score: 1 · on Running The Numbers: Why Gnutella Can't Scale

    Should be freenetproject.org.


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  32. Re:Getting SHASM by hardburn · · Score: 1 · on Assembler Compiler In Bash

    Nope, just slashdotted. Maximum of 60 anoyn connections. I've provided a mirror on Freenet; see another post.


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  33. Freenet Mirror by hardburn · · Score: 1 · on Assembler Compiler In Bash

    I have provided this mirror on Freenet:

    KSK@/slashdot/mirror/shasm.TGZ

    The direct CHK is CHK@CZMmKmFfPIBICsilSsDybTofi1oOAwE,cNNb4iRSoRGynx ANzqhByQ

    If you have Freenet node and a plugin for your browser that can understand freenet: URIs, you can click the above to get it. Otherwise, go to www.freenetproject.org and download and install Freenet. Then request the key.


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  34. Freenet Mirror by hardburn · · Score: 1 · on Assembler Compiler In Bash

    I have provided this mirror on Freenet:

    KSK@/slashdot/mirror/shasm.TGZ

    The direct CHK is CHK@CZMmKmFfPIBICsilSsDybTofi1oOAwE,cNNb4iRSoRGynx ANzqhByQ

    If you have Freenet node and a plugin for your browser that can understand freenet: URIs, you can click the above to get it. Otherwise, go to www.freenetproject.org and download and install Freenet. Then request the key.


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  35. Re:Slashdotted ftp by hardburn · · Score: 1 · on Assembler Compiler In Bash

    I have provided this mirror on Freenet:

    KSK@/slashdot/mirror/shasm.TGZ

    The direct CHK is CHK@CZMmKmFfPIBICsilSsDybTofi1oOAwE,cNNb4iRSoRGynx ANzqhByQ

    If you have Freenet node and a plugin for your browser that can understand freenet: URIs, you can click the above to get it. Otherwise, go to www.freenetproject.org and download and install Freenet. Then request the key.


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  36. Re:Slashdotted ftp by hardburn · · Score: 1 · on Assembler Compiler In Bash

    I have provided this mirror on Freenet:

    KSK@/slashdot/mirror/shasm.TGZ

    The direct CHK is CHK@CZMmKmFfPIBICsilSsDybTofi1oOAwE,cNNb4iRSoRGynx ANzqhByQ

    If you have Freenet node and a plugin for your browser that can understand freenet: URIs, you can click the above to get it. Otherwise, go to www.freenetproject.org and download and install Freenet. Then request the key.


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  37. Freenet will be there too... by Sanity · · Score: 2 · on Hemos & CmdrTaco @ O'Reilly P2P Conference
    I will be there too, along with most of the other core Freenet developers. It will actually be the first time the core developers have met in person so it should be great fun. A number of developers are giving a variety of talks on different subjects, generally all Freenet related in some way. If you are there, feel free to say "hi" - this is what I look like.

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  38. What happens if 2600 lose the appeal? by Sanity · · Score: 4 · on DVD Case Follow-Up
    It is worth considering what should happen if 2600 lose the court appeal (and any subsequent appeals). Personally I subscribe to the view that it is the responsibility of every patriot to ignore an unjust law (although I am not American). We are fortunate in that it seems technology is on our side. As communication technologies such as the Internet improve, attempts to prevent communication and the sharing of ideas (such as the DMCA) will become more and more difficult to enforce. Systems such as Freenet hold the promise of making enforcement of these unjust laws next to impossible.

    What do you do when the law fails you?

    Ignore it.

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  39. How does this differ from Freenet? by Sanity · · Score: 2 · on A Different Idea For Distributed Storage
    This is presented as being similar to Freenet, but doesn't seem to address any of the issues the Freenet addresses. It seems to rely on centralized indexes of what files are stored where, making it rather similar to Napster. ISPs seem to be expected to maintain these indexes, so then the question is raised - can you be identified by the operator of your index?

    On further examination - this basically looks like the product of someone who looked at the Freenet design, didn't understand it, and tried to reimplement it.

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  40. Re:But searching is the ''key'' :) by hardburn · · Score: 3 · on Is Freenet Vapourware? Ian Clarke Responds

    I can understand that the leader is feeling a bit moaned at and undervalued, the stuff does work at the heart of it and he and the other people working on it do deserve credit for it.

    As some who is working on stuff over Freenet (through the new Everything Over Freenet project; check it out at eof.sourceforge.net) and has been on the mailing lists for about a year, I can tell you that most of the developers and mailing list regs hate Freenet's publicity. The project really hasn't accomplished that much and the media is screaming over it.

    The problem that they don't seem to have addressed in their efforts to dodge censorship is that they will ultimately make the posession and propogation of the key names themselves illegal, undoing all of the good work they have planned for. For example, it will be the posession or use of the key name ''secrets/food/soylent green'' that will be used to repress people who might like to look up the document belonging to the key.

    This is actualy already solved to some extent. Let me give a crash course on the types of keys on Freenet (a more complete list is at http://www.freenetproject.org/index.php?page=keys) :

    KHK--These were deprecated in 0.3 and replaced by KSKs (see bellow) due to similar problems that you described above. KSKs now do the same job (i.e., have a guessable, human-readable string for a key name), but much more securly.

    KSK--Provides a human-readable, guessable key. Despite being more secure then KHKs, they are not as secure as CHKs (see bellow). Its suggested use is as a redirect to a CHK. This is accomplished by setting the CLI option "-autoRedirect" for inserts to "yes". That is also the default behavior for FProxy.

    CHK--Is not human-readable. Instead, its a cryptographic hash of the data inside.

    There are a few others, such as SVK and SSK, but they're not as important for this disccusion (see the link above for more detials on them if you're interested).

    So, lets say KSK@how-to-build-a-nuke.txt (note: Freenet URIs are formed like this: keytype@key) is a redirect to CHK@fjdskalf879934q2823rl,ekf;qnieof (I don't think I have the correct number of charecters for the CHK's crypto hash, I just type it randomly, but it doesn't matter). If a given node operator has their house broken into by Them and their node searched for a specific key name, they may find the KSK name, but that doesn't mean the operator was actualy holding that key (its just like a link on the web . . . oh no :). Nor does it mean that he had requested the data, much less had been the one to put it there in the first place.

    There are a few things that Freenet needs to get rid of, but was known all along that they were just crutches to be gotten out of latter. The first is key indecies, which list names of keys. The second is inform.php, which is how a new node discovers other nodes already in the network. The latter will require being replaced by searching, and the former will be replaced by "discovery probes". The inform.php is the more serious of the two and will probably be fixed first (should be in 0.5 at the latest). Searching is a lower priority so it may not be touched until we get closer to 1.0 (some predict even longer, others a lot shorter. I think it will be there in 0.5).


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  41. Re:Where is the web page: here by Cardhore · · Score: 1 · on Freenet, Broken Down By Content

    freenetproject.org

  42. True P2P Can't Scale? Take a look at Freenet by Sanity · · Score: 3 · on Gnutella's Challenge
    Take a look at these simulations of Freenet's reliability and performance as the network size increases. You will notice that once the network stabalizes the network's size has little bearing on the time required to retrieve a piece of data. Other experiments (not yet published) have demonstrated that Freenet appears to scale logarithmically (similar to a binary search-tree), which, if accurate, means that the system could probably deal with a network of millions of nodes without any significant performance drop.

    --

  43. get a clue by Sanity · · Score: 2 · on Ian Clarke on Peer-to-Peer
    If you think that there is no more to Freenet than its caching effect then you really need to do more research before demonstrating just how little you know.

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  44. another story - another slashdotted site by Sanity · · Score: 4 · on Keyless Keyboard
    ...and so I continue my advocasy of mirroring websites in Freenet prior to linking to them on /. (and before you ask - yes I have read the FAQ). What do you think someone would mind more? Their website being mirrored in Freenet (with all links to banner ads etc retained), or to have a well-meaning DOS attack from SlashDot bringing down their website for all of their other users?

    My question is not whether it is right for slashdot to mirror websites, but whether it is right for them no to!

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  45. Freenet Mirror by Sanity · · Score: 2 · on EU Study Looks At Software Patents
    The PDF report has been mirrored on Freenet at KSK@pdf/eu_patent_report [fproxy].

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  46. Freenet. by xMJRx · · Score: 2 · on MBONE for Software Distribution?
    To distribute RedHat ISO images (or any large file) with Freenet:
    1. Download the 0.3.1 release, or check out the CVS.
    2. Modify your rc.local script (or equivalent) to run the node on boot. No, this in not optional!
    3. Use rar to break the ISO into a reasonable number of segments. I'd recommend a size of 10 megabytes each.
    4. Insert each file as a CHK (in bash):

      #for PART in *.rar ; do echo "$(./freenet_insert CHK@ $PART 2>&1 | grep "Inserted Key" | cut -b 18-) $PART" >>parts.txt ; done

      This command will insert all the .rar files into Freenet and record their keys to parts.txt.

    5. Insert the parts.txt file into freenet under the keytype of your choice. KSKs are human readable, but you have the option of using a SVK or SSK subspace, both of which are cryptographically signed by the publisher. Specifically, consider using an SSK if you intend to insert many related files.

      An example of inserting a KSK: #./freenet_insert KSK@my_inserted_data parts.txt

    Requesting your data is simple. You first request the list of parts -- KSK@my_inserted_data. You then request each of the parts in the list, concurrently if you've got the bandwidth! Obviously, if you need to request 50 files, you're going to want to write a simple script to do it.

    Say you only request 25 files at once, and they all come in at 3 kilobytes/sec (everyone else has a 56k modem). You thus download the file at 75kbyte/sec! Of course, most nodes run on fatter pipes, so speeds will be even better.

    And did I mention that the files cache and mirror themselves automatically as demand increases?

  47. Re:authors and their work. by spankfish · · Score: 1 · on On Handling Web Site Legalities?
    This plan works for me too. (I run the aether sanctum, an australian dark culture zine.)

    I also point out to contributors that they own the copyright on what they have written, and I take copyright on its presentation, and they give me permission to do this. I haven't had any problems, and besides, its is unlikely any Big Nasty corporations could validly take offense to my site, even though there is an anti-corporate smell about it, since the readership is so small that I could claim any damages would be speculative at best and statistically insignificant at worst. If all else fails I'll put the sucker on Freenet!

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  48. Re:I would be working on this... by Chess+Cardigan · · Score: 1 · on Freenet 0.3 Released
    Why not write the core in C (which is, face it, just as portable as Java if done correctly) and then a UI in Java?

    As said in the Freenet FAQ:

    3.6. Why Java?
    • Java is one of the most cross-platform languages currently available.
    • There are free Java implementations available such as Kaffe. We will ensure that Freenet is always compatible with these versions even if Sun attempts to make it more difficult for free Java implementations to keep up with their proprietary versions.
    • Java has excellent network support.
    • Java is easier to debug than other languages such as C++. This lets us get on with the business of implementing Freenet quickly and reliably!

    In addition: if you know C and/or C++ Java is extremely easy to learn. The Java standard libraries provide heaps of functionality for free. Java is a higher level programming language than C, meaning lots of stuff is taken care for you, meaning you can write the programs quicker.
  49. Re:What about Akamai? by otis+wildflower · · Score: 2 · on Are We Ready For Broadband Internet Access?

    Akamai is awesome, but it would be nice to have an open-source, open-network way to implement this at the ISP level. Does anyone know of any such effort underway already?

    IIRC, freenet handles localized caching..

    Your Working Boy,

  50. Re:The spirit is good, the letter is ugly by sparrowjk · · Score: 2 · on Vinton Cerf Says Carnivore Source Best Left Closed

    The spirit of carnivore is good, the idea that they can target one potential criminal, and read all email pertaining to him in an attempt to arrest him is great. The FBI needs somthing like that.

    The FBI has always relied on covert surveillance. Carnivore is not exactly new or ground-breaking. But one has to wonder at how effective ANY system of this sort would be against technically-adept individuals. How many people who want to evade surveillance would email in plain text? Strong cryptography is frightening to the government precisely because they don't (yet) have a way to stop it. It seems to me that anyone who wished to evade detection could do so -- but I'm no expert in these matters.

    The Freenet mailing lists have interesting discussions on these topics, mainly because Freenet's design goals include anonymity and untraceability.

    The letter though, says only the FBI gets a good look at the code, and they can impliment it anywhere, anytime, on anybody, without any notice.

    I don't think that's strictly speaking true. Mostly, police surveillance in this country requires some strong indication of wrong-doing. The Fourth Amendment provides for protection against "unreasonable searches and seizures." I don't have any specifics regarding Carnivore but I would assume (hope) that monitoring everyone all the time would constitute an unreasonable search or seizure.

    ...it'd be nice to see the government at least attempt to follow with current trends and opensource the carnivore program.

    It is not in the government's best interest to open source it -- even though it may be in ours.

    That was a mistake from the start, their PR department is getting spanked by the public...

    Yes, a PR nightmare, assuming anyone is listening. I haven't seen it on network television lately.

    I'm sure ISP's wouldn't mind adapting the software as a government-provided-spam-blocker, we spend enough money as it is trying spam email cases as it is.

    I don't know about spam-blocker, but as for voluntary ISP participation... It seems unlikely to me that ISP's would volunteer to be the bad guy unless it was in their best interest, ie, to avoid lawsuits or prosecution. Customers certainly wouldn't appreciate it. We get annoyed when our ISP's try to throttle bandwidth, never mind about them volunteering to spy on us and rat us out to the gov't.