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Freenet Creator Debates RIAA
smd4985 writes "Over at CNET News.com, there's a good coverage of a debate between Ian Clarke of Freenet and Matt Oppenheim of the RIAA." In discussing whether it's "legal and moral to create and use Freenet", which is "a radically decentralized network of file-sharing nodes tied together with strong encryption", the RIAA's Oppenheim suggests: "Other than the fact that most infringers do not like to use Freenet because it is too clunky for them to get their quick hit of free music, it is no more of a threat than any of the popular P2P services."
Hmm... I think I should become a troll... ah yes, I am pretty good at coming up with random stupid trollposts, maybe. :)
I trolled steampowered.com before, it was great fun, everyone else though so too
I feel roughly the same way about FreeNet as I do about Java itself. I really like the concept but hate the implementation. The one time I tried to get FreeNet up and running it was a painful, painful process, and then it munched up far too much memory.
Have these issues been addressed? Is it going to remain a Java-only effort or is the spec such that an implmentation in another language is do-able? What about the installation process. Is ease-of-install and/or configuration a priority?
Finally, what are the prospects for a firewall-friendly type of P2P application? Both at work and at home, I'm stuck behind NAT boxes. I'd like to be able to be part of a network like this, but FreeNet and other similar things seem designed for always-on, non-NAT boxes. In theory it should be possible to design a program so that it can both download and upload from behind a NAT, using some kind of polling-type mechanism for the upload-side. Has anybody put any effort into this? I'm sure the number of users would jump if something similar were made available.