Slashdot Mirror
Advances in Decentralized Peer Networks
PureFiction writes "Peer networks are gaining some
attention these
days given advances in much more
decentralized
search
architectures and
swarming
distribution
networks.
Research has indicated that these decentralized networks are resistant to
legal and
technological attacks.
The continued proliferation of
broadband
and wireless networking
will ensure
pervasive deployment
of distributed
peer networking infrastructure
that will drive significant innovations in
personal and
community
digital communications services."
that every word couldn't be a hyperlink.
Chicago, what?
But I wish he had posted a link or something.
"Research has indicated that these decentralized networks are resistant to legal and technological attacks. The continued proliferation of broadband and wireless networking will ensure pervasive deployment of distributed peer networking infrastructure that will drive significant innovations in personal and community digital communications services."
So what P2P networks are resistent to "last mile" control tactics? Port blocking. Speed limiting. Quotas. Remember control of P2P has one thing in common with security. It doesn't have to be perfect. It simply has to be innconvient enough that people give up and go away.
As a security person, I hate these peer to peer applications: there are so many worm strategies which can exploit these, creating fast and stealthy attacks.
As such, if I was in charge of corporate security administration, I'd ban them completely. At the universities, I'd packet-shape-them into a much lower priority.
Unfortunatly, they are growing considerably more stealthy as a result of these legal attacks and the effects of packet-shapers. This may be a good thing for those who want their 1337 WAR3Z, D00D!!, but is rather unfortunate for those who want to create secure systems.
Test your net with Netalyzr
I'm not trying to troll here. Since napster all i've ever seen P2P used for is piracy of music, applications, pretty much whatever you wanted.
:) I saw no less than 100 users sharing the file. Nobody is supposed to have it but I do. Thanks to the decentralized nature of P2P there's no accountability. Websites that were hosting the file got a nasty attorney letter though.
I am that pot calling the kettle black. I am your average joe user. I have kazaa and routinely use it for downloading music. Yes I am a criminal. As are %99.9999 of all other P2P users.
I understand the benifits of P2P, each client acting as a server and bonding the collective bandwidth of all the clients together. Yes I know it can be used for free speech, and I know for legitimate file distribution it can't be beat. That's just it though, it's never going to be legitimate without some type of DRM.
I downloaded doom3 alpha (Sorry Carmack, it kicks ass though
Here is my slashdottish geek comment. P2P creators need to start focusing on making their clients good for legitimate uses. For example, I think it would kick ass if the distro's started using P2P for their distro's, or a P2P based web server/browser. Anything to turn it from a black to a white sheep.
*Note to mods
Sorry I don't mean to be Mr. Obvious here, but I just feel any future P2P doesn't stand a chance if it doesn't have a legitimate foundation to stand on. The RIAA & MPAA has already proven what a great team of legal sharks they have and can overcome any technological advancements made in P2P
my 2 cents
Is it just me, or did that mess of links and words look strangely like things I read at work?
If I wanted to read horrible PC-edited, buzzword-laden, over-link tripe, I would look at the stack of paperwork on my left that is being shunned in favor of reading SlashDot.
------
Today's Top Deals
Totally on-topic co-incidence; just a little while ago I ran into a pointer to the MNET project.
When the Mojo Nation P2P effort ran out of money they released the client code under the GPL (it is in Python). MNET is a stripped-down variant of the code (without the micropayment kruft) delivered as an API with some sample apps, one of which is a file sharing application.
So, if you know a little Python, you can grab MNET and whip up your own distributed file-sharing network. Cool!
- -
Are you an SF Fan? Are you a Tru-Fan?
Given enough resources, large companies can "pollute" these networks with "garbage" (i.e. corrupted songs etc.) that top people's search lists so that it becomes an intensely frustrating thing to find a full, complete, and good quality file.
Then again, I have that problem anyways. Blimey!
But if you are searching for legal/obscure files, it doesn't matter, because they won't be targeted by the companies.
On a side note, can't these large companies be held responsible for all the bandwidth that they cause to be wasted? Or do we run into the same problem we have prosecuting spammers for bandwidth waste?
Just because I doubt myself does not mean I find your position compelling.
It is early days yet, but at least this demonstrates the type of things it can be useful for.
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge"
- Charles Darwin
Wow, just imagine. Someday everyone will have a P2P network of their very own! Er, wait....
Piracy would be buying a CD, making copies of it, and selling those copies to people for a profit. In this case, you entered into an agreement with the copyright holder of the CD, and are violating applicable laws.
When you download something off the Internet, you are under no obligation to be aware of its source, or the license agreements associated with it.
Even posting copyrighted material on the Internet is not illegal if you have not been explicitely notified that you are in violation of the copyright agreement. The notice on your CD case counts, I believe, if you own the CD.
So if you download something off the 'Net, you're well within the bounds of legality, and you can retransmit that until the copyright holder asks you to stop.
American laws are so strange...
Anybody with knowledge of writing software knows there's going to be now way of stopping peer to peer, at least not technically.
The only thing the powers that be can do IMHO is to make it illegal to share files and folders on a publicly (free) available network which contain copyrighted data.
When we get to the point where everyone has a phone/pda with 1 GB of storage and Wifi built this is going to be a real serious problem for the record companies.
Have you ever heard Epiphany Radio? It's a shoutcast station I used to listen to, until I ran into a 12 user limit imposed because the broadcasters couldn't afford the bandwidth to support many users. Thanks to peer to peer technology (the Gnutella protocol), I can once again listen to this station, via their peercast stream.
It does not concern me at all that P2P content is currently mostly illegal warez, music, movies and porn. It's an excellent testbed for the ability of the technology to withstand technological and legal attack.
It does however comfort me that P2P works and is widely deployed. The average person is familiar with it and knows how to use it. If corporations and government ever get too oppressive, P2P is an powerful tool that the people can use to preserve their rights. Current P2P networks could easily be put into this type of service at need.
I see the net just now starting to realize the ideals that is was founded under. Decentralization, free access to information for all, everyone can easily be both producer and consumer, etc. All trends (wireless, weblogs, P2P) point to this.
Unfortunately, the legal work we did early on when designing the system only prevented people from suing us (the code creators) and it did so by pushing liability off on to the users. That was the closest that one could really get to safety given the structure of the DMCA. Contrary to the widely held fantasy among decentralized p2p systems, "willful blindness" is not a valid defense against DMCA attacks -- something that I think the upcoming Kazaa et al. trial is eventually going to reveal after all of the appeals and other legal wrangling is worked out.
BTW, the only app that mnet provides is a publish-retrieve shared data system identical to the old mojonation (sans distributed resource management), file sharing is not "one of" the apps for the API, it is the only app.
"Peer networks *DING!* are gaining some attention these days given advances in much more decentralized *DING!* search architectures *DING!* and swarming *DING!* distribution *DING!* networks. *DING!* Research has indicated *DING!* that these decentralized *DING!* networks *DING!* are resistant *DING!* to legal *DING!* and technological *DING!* attacks. *DING!* The continued proliferation *DING!* of broadband *DING!* and wireless *DING!* networking will ensure pervasive *DING!* deployment *DING!* of distributed *DING!* peer *DING!* networking *DING!* infrastructure *DING!* that will drive significant *DING!* innovations *DING!* in personal *DING!* and community *DING!* digital communications *DING!* services *DING!*
Cheers,
Bowie J. Poag
I think one of the most exciting things about P2P is that the costs are borne by the consumer, not the publisher. This holds true with Freenet, and holds true with Gnutella and Kazaa as well. If I have a popular, non-commercial web page, I the publisher have to pay to keep my pages up, and the more popular the pages are, the more I pay. With P2P however, the consumers act as distributors as well, so whether it's an audio file, video, web page or whatnot flowing over Freenet/Kazaa/Gnutella, the cost for me to publish is not there. I like this because it means popular, non-commercial media can spread by virtue of popularity, and the Internet can't be monopolized by people who can control the flow of information simply because they own the printing presses and distribution networks. I also think this is what makes P2P something disdained by the powers that be. The RIAA/MPAA's activities are just the short-term, tactical activities of the people who fund them, I care very little for their rationale and look for what the long-term effects would be if they were fully successful, and it doesn't look good - I don't really care about the supposed morality of their authority or whatnot, I'm only interested in the effects of their actions. Thousands of years ago, the concept of property in this economy of scarcity was created. Recently this concept has been extended to the spectrum, to bits of information flowing between me and a friend's computer with it's economy of non-scarcity, and even to species themselves. If we do not build a technological foundation that helps put power in the hands of the people (like Gutenberg, Wozniak, and Justin Frankel), accompanied by social movements that protect people from the powers-that-be using law and authority to dominate them, I think we are headed into a dire future.
Oh MAN, it will take us HOURS to slashdot these servers down! We should get paid for this stuff.
Jouni
Jouni Mannonen | Game Designer, Consultant