Re:Why a TLD and not a protocol?
by
Arrgh
·
· Score: 3
Because a new protocol requires a browser plugin to implement. Using an existing protocol (HTTP) makes perfect sense, because a proxy server is very easy to write, and you don't need to ask users to install anything in their already highly unstable browsers.
This is obviously and clearly what the constitution says. But courts decide how they choose to. You might, eventually, be proven correct, if you had enough money and hired the right lawyers. And even then it could take decades. And guess where you'd be in the interim.
The constitution is a very good document in many ways. Too bad the government keeps trying to ignore it. (I do think that it over-centralizes the government, however.)
Caution: Now approaching the (technological) singularity.
--
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
Several good points. And these will need addressing if FreeNet is to be maximally useful. Personally, I think that the proper solution would be something like a user version of chroot (i.e., a version that you don't need to have super-user rights to use). Then install each new package with it's own chroot directory. How one could do something like this on windows, I haven't a clue. Of course, what I run at work is Win95, so most of the concepts aren't even present. Perhaps NT or Win2000 has something that would allow this. New laws and the MS license mean that I'll never find out.
Caution: Now approaching the (technological) singularity.
--
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
Delphi does compile everything to native - and bundles all required components into the executable (no necessary.dll lying around like with Microsoft products). Delphi and C++ Builder have a common compilation backend which is fed by either a Object Pascal or C++ interpreter, and they come bundled with a full set of components written in Object Pascal (and that C++ Builder can interface with C++). Quite a big demonstration of how Object Pascal and C++ are similar in capabilities and concept.
The FreeNet website does a good job of explaining to a semi-technically-literate person like me how FreeNet is or can be resistant to many technological attcks. But what about broad legal attacks? I can envision a scenario where a series of laws are passed and enforced in various countries (ones like China, UK, USA):
1) It is, obviously but now explicitly, illegal to access or make available any sort of illegal materials on FreeNet. This can include child porn, other sexually-related expression, copyright infringement, privacy violations, harassment, libel, racism, some forms of political dissent or political security violations...etc.
2) If a Freenet user is suspected of violating (1), search warrents will be served, and the suspect will be made to make their private keys available to law enforcement. All node operators will fall under the same warrents.
3) Public anonymous communication is declaired illegal (since the amount of illegal activity is so high, and since the cost of weeding out the illegal is so great). Suspected violators and any node operators must make available their private keys.
4) Freenet users are automaticly suspected of anonymous communication, therefore, standing warrents are issued against all Freenet users.
From there it's a short jump to just say that Freenet is illegal, and it's use is punishable.
"FreeWeb Agent is a small proxy server which allows you to surf FreeWeb sites on any browser. It forwards mainstream web requests like www.yahoo.com out to the mainstream web, but directs FreeWeb requests (to sites on the.free domain) to FreeNet.
"FreeWeb Publisher gives you an easy and convenient way to publish websites to FreeWeb. It keeps private records of all the files of your websites, so that each time you publish a website, only changed files get re-inserted to Freenet. FreeWeb publisher is easy to choose - just drop a folder onto the window, choose a domain name, click the 'update' button, and wait a couple of minutes - your site is then live and visible to others."
One of the uses for Freenet I noticed on the "What is Freenet?" page:
Efficient distribution of high-bandwidth content: Freenet's adaptive caching and mirroring is being used to distribute Debian Linux software updates and to combat the Slashdot effect.
So Slashdotters: you are not only helping to further the discussion of a free Internet, but you're in a sense a driving force in its technological development as well...
Of course when did you last use Freenet? Lets all remember that this is still a project in development - heavy development. Yes, sometimes getting data off freenet can take some time. But as more people start nodes, it gets faster. I've noticed a speed improvement.
Besides - even with Napster in teh good ole days I'd queue a bunch of downloads and let it go - I could care less how long it took. Hopefully espra or some other client will allow the same thing. Queue some downloads and let it go.
As someone who hosts a Freenet node (that tends to stay pretty busy which is a good sign) I haveto laugh at how quickly folks change their tune.
People are constantly raging against The Man - RIAA, MPAA, Feds, loser ISPs, Carnavore, etc.
Now along comes Freenet - a technology designed to allow users anonymous access to a network where they can search for a post information. Seems like the perfect way to stick it to the man, keep some privacy, and do what you please over the internet (in theory) Yet you get people going on about how only criminals and kiddie pr0n scum would use it. Oh please! I'm tired of new technologies being shoved under the rug because they MIGHT be usable by criminals (can we say PGP??)
Freenet is great because it allows users to share information in an anonymous way. It protects the folks running the servers by encrypting the stored data and providing a decent separation between keys and content - the admin is clueless - an important legal point.
I'm happy to run a Freenet node. Sure I wonder at times what is on it and fully expect there might be an illegal file or two. But I feel no more guilty for providing the service than any backbone provider who provides the pathways for the mafia to plan hits, and serious pr0n scumbags, at the saem time providing us the ability to browse a worldwide network.
The world is NEVER gonna be a perfect place and we are in serious risk of ignoring important technologies because of theri possible criminal applications.
Basic Problem with Freenet
by
Ape8888
·
· Score: 3
The basic problem right now is that MOST nodes are "transient", meaning that they are not connected to the Internet most/all of the time.
The problem here is that any data stored on that node will be inaccessible while the node is down. To fix this, nodes that do not have a known history of being non-transient should always have their data mirrored by non-transient nodes.
Also, TRANSIENT should be CHECKED by default in the Freenet configuration! Most nodes are transient.
Ideally, all nodes should be mirrored by other nodes. The number of nodes mirroring should be determined by the average uptime of the source node.
For example, if node X is only connected to Freenet 75% of the time, its data should be mirrored by 5 nodes that have an average uptime of 75% or better. If node Y is connected to Freenet 99% of the time, its data should be mirrored by 2 nodes that have an average uptime of 50% or better.
Obviously someone will need to pick better heuristics than that.
Think it's impossible for The Man to make the use of FreeNet illegal? Try this easy three-step sting operation on for size.
Inject some really illegal information into the FreeNet (kiddie porn comes to mind, since it's the anti-freedom crowd's favorite bogeyman these days)
Go somewhere else and search for it
Find the person who owns the server you got it from, and throw them in jail.
It doesn't matter that the person you're throwing in jail probably didn't even know what was on the box. Under the DMCA, they're responsible anyway. After a few of these sting operations, done at a high enough profile to make an example of them, no one will want to run FreeNet servers anymore. In fact, most server operators will put a closer eye on what their users are doing -- exactly the desired effect.
Welcome to AmeriKKKa. How DO you like it?! --
-- Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
Over here in the "mand of the free, home of the brave," we're heading in the opposite direction.
- - - - -
-- Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
Why a TLD and not a protocol?
by
jesser
·
· Score: 4
Why does this software create a fake TLD (.free) instead of creating a freenet:// protocol? If you're going to distribute links that only a few people can use, you might as well distribute them in a way that browsers can give the correct error message ("protocol not supported" instead of "host not found").
-- The shareholder is always right.
Re:Source? Language used?
by
brunes69
·
· Score: 4
It only took me 1 minute of reading the about page to discover that the author
Plans on a full open source release as soon as the codebase settles
Plans on developing a Linux port very soon
People should spend more time reading the pages about which these posts are placed before posting needless questions to/.
Of course, they can be sought after, but, at least in the United States, any authority would need proof that certain content was actually being distributed by that person or entity.
One of the features of Freenet is the inability to determine exactly where you data is really coming from, and so there would be no way to legally shut someone down, unless the program itself and its use was outlawed.
-- Friends don't let friends use multiple inheritance.
Re:FreeNet = misnomer
by
electricmonk
·
· Score: 5
My cable modem provider, for example, has pretty good access to the data I send around.
Well, one could simply take a look at what freenet is all about, such as ENCRYPTION IS USED EVERYWHERE, and you would discover that, lo and behold, your cable provider would still have access to the data that you send around with freenet, but they wouldn't be able to understand a single thing.
-- Friends don't let friends use multiple inheritance.
Slashdot Mirror
Because a new protocol requires a browser plugin to implement. Using an existing protocol (HTTP) makes perfect sense, because a proxy server is very easy to write, and you don't need to ask users to install anything in their already highly unstable browsers.
This is obviously and clearly what the constitution says. But courts decide how they choose to. You might, eventually, be proven correct, if you had enough money and hired the right lawyers. And even then it could take decades. And guess where you'd be in the interim.
The constitution is a very good document in many ways. Too bad the government keeps trying to ignore it. (I do think that it over-centralizes the government, however.)
Caution: Now approaching the (technological) singularity.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
Several good points. And these will need addressing if FreeNet is to be maximally useful. Personally, I think that the proper solution would be something like a user version of chroot (i.e., a version that you don't need to have super-user rights to use). Then install each new package with it's own chroot directory. How one could do something like this on windows, I haven't a clue. Of course, what I run at work is Win95, so most of the concepts aren't even present. Perhaps NT or Win2000 has something that would allow this. New laws and the MS license mean that I'll never find out.
Caution: Now approaching the (technological) singularity.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~ogwilliams/FreeSearch/
* no reliance on one dude's computer for any silly dns entries.
* familiar interface for anyone who has used other p2p apps. (ie I copied napster)
* uses java, so it works on any machine with a java VM.
* Freenet is totally invisible, no need to know how it works _at_all_!
The Unix version, at least, has a built-in web interface that you can typically get to at http://localhost:8081/. It's really pretty easy after that.
There's even a DEB, making using Freenet dead easy for Debian users.
Delphi does compile everything to native - and bundles all required components into the executable (no necessary .dll lying around like with Microsoft products). Delphi and C++ Builder have a common compilation backend which is fed by either a Object Pascal or C++ interpreter, and they come bundled with a full set of components written in Object Pascal (and that C++ Builder can interface with C++). Quite a big demonstration of how Object Pascal and C++ are similar in capabilities and concept.
The FreeNet website does a good job of explaining to a semi-technically-literate person like me how FreeNet is or can be resistant to many technological attcks. But what about broad legal attacks? I can envision a scenario where a series of laws are passed and enforced in various countries (ones like China, UK, USA):
1) It is, obviously but now explicitly, illegal to access or make available any sort of illegal materials on FreeNet. This can include child porn, other sexually-related expression, copyright infringement, privacy violations, harassment, libel, racism, some forms of political dissent or political security violations...etc.
2) If a Freenet user is suspected of violating (1), search warrents will be served, and the suspect will be made to make their private keys available to law enforcement. All node operators will fall under the same warrents.
3) Public anonymous communication is declaired illegal (since the amount of illegal activity is so high, and since the cost of weeding out the illegal is so great). Suspected violators and any node operators must make available their private keys.
4) Freenet users are automaticly suspected of anonymous communication, therefore, standing warrents are issued against all Freenet users.
From there it's a short jump to just say that Freenet is illegal, and it's use is punishable.
Are there any reasons that this won't happen?
From the website:
.free domain) to FreeNet.
"FreeWeb Agent is a small proxy server which allows you to surf FreeWeb sites on any browser. It forwards mainstream web requests like www.yahoo.com out to the mainstream web, but directs FreeWeb requests (to sites on the
"FreeWeb Publisher gives you an easy and convenient way to publish websites to FreeWeb. It keeps private records of all the files of your websites, so that each time you publish a website, only changed files get re-inserted to Freenet. FreeWeb publisher is easy to choose - just drop a folder onto the window, choose a domain name, click the 'update' button, and wait a couple of minutes - your site is then live and visible to others."
Efficient distribution of high-bandwidth content: Freenet's adaptive caching and mirroring is being used to distribute Debian Linux software updates and to combat the Slashdot effect.
So Slashdotters: you are not only helping to further the discussion of a free Internet, but you're in a sense a driving force in its technological development as well...
Freedom: "I won't!"
Besides - even with Napster in teh good ole days I'd queue a bunch of downloads and let it go - I could care less how long it took. Hopefully espra or some other client will allow the same thing. Queue some downloads and let it go.
--
Top Most Bizarre/Disturbing Error Messages
People are constantly raging against The Man - RIAA, MPAA, Feds, loser ISPs, Carnavore, etc.
Now along comes Freenet - a technology designed to allow users anonymous access to a network where they can search for a post information. Seems like the perfect way to stick it to the man, keep some privacy, and do what you please over the internet (in theory) Yet you get people going on about how only criminals and kiddie pr0n scum would use it. Oh please! I'm tired of new technologies being shoved under the rug because they MIGHT be usable by criminals (can we say PGP??)
Freenet is great because it allows users to share information in an anonymous way. It protects the folks running the servers by encrypting the stored data and providing a decent separation between keys and content - the admin is clueless - an important legal point.
I'm happy to run a Freenet node. Sure I wonder at times what is on it and fully expect there might be an illegal file or two. But I feel no more guilty for providing the service than any backbone provider who provides the pathways for the mafia to plan hits, and serious pr0n scumbags, at the saem time providing us the ability to browse a worldwide network.
The world is NEVER gonna be a perfect place and we are in serious risk of ignoring important technologies because of theri possible criminal applications.
--
Top Most Bizarre/Disturbing Error Messages
The basic problem right now is that MOST nodes are "transient", meaning that they are not connected to the Internet most/all of the time.
The problem here is that any data stored on that node will be inaccessible while the node is down. To fix this, nodes that do not have a known history of being non-transient should always have their data mirrored by non-transient nodes.
Also, TRANSIENT should be CHECKED by default in the Freenet configuration! Most nodes are transient.
Ideally, all nodes should be mirrored by other nodes. The number of nodes mirroring should be determined by the average uptime of the source node.
For example, if node X is only connected to Freenet 75% of the time, its data should be mirrored by 5 nodes that have an average uptime of 75% or better. If node Y is connected to Freenet 99% of the time, its data should be mirrored by 2 nodes that have an average uptime of 50% or better.
Obviously someone will need to pick better heuristics than that.
Also,
- Inject some really illegal information into the FreeNet (kiddie porn comes to mind, since it's the anti-freedom crowd's favorite bogeyman these days)
- Go somewhere else and search for it
- Find the person who owns the server you got it from, and throw them in jail.
It doesn't matter that the person you're throwing in jail probably didn't even know what was on the box. Under the DMCA, they're responsible anyway. After a few of these sting operations, done at a high enough profile to make an example of them, no one will want to run FreeNet servers anymore. In fact, most server operators will put a closer eye on what their users are doing -- exactly the desired effect.Welcome to AmeriKKKa. How DO you like it?!
--
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
Interesting that this came out of Russia.
Over here in the "mand of the free, home of the brave," we're heading in the opposite direction.
- - - - -
Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
Why does this software create a fake TLD (.free) instead of creating a freenet:// protocol? If you're going to distribute links that only a few people can use, you might as well distribute them in a way that browsers can give the correct error message ("protocol not supported" instead of "host not found").
The shareholder is always right.
- Plans on a full open source release as soon as the codebase settles
- Plans on developing a Linux port very soon
People should spend more time reading the pages about which these posts are placed before posting needless questions toOf course, they can be sought after, but, at least in the United States, any authority would need proof that certain content was actually being distributed by that person or entity.
One of the features of Freenet is the inability to determine exactly where you data is really coming from, and so there would be no way to legally shut someone down, unless the program itself and its use was outlawed.
Friends don't let friends use multiple inheritance.
Well, one could simply take a look at what freenet is all about, such as ENCRYPTION IS USED EVERYWHERE, and you would discover that, lo and behold, your cable provider would still have access to the data that you send around with freenet, but they wouldn't be able to understand a single thing.
Friends don't let friends use multiple inheritance.