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Where is the Replacement for the JAP Anon-Proxy?

Posted by Cliff on from the for-anonymous-cowards-everywhere dept.

An anonymous reader asks: "Now that it has been a month since the University of Dresden's Java Anonymous Proxy was back-doored via court order, what is the status of forked projects? Have any universities or individuals in countries with more respect for freedom taken the initiative to provide a truly anonymous alternative? Could a Freenet/P2P type system, with plausible deniability, be developed from the remnants of the JAP program? I would be willing to operate a mix if I could restrict the bandwidth usage and use a SOCKS proxy for my P2P apps. Could a phoenix rise from the ashes of JAP which delivered a 1-2 punch to censorship and media conglomerate entrapment?"

2 of 28 comments (clear)

  1. Re:JAP isn't back-doored by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative
    ATM, the JAP programs's Crime Detection Feature has been removed.
    Says who? AN.ON, the same folks who neglected to mention that the Crime Detection Feature was there to begin with (presumably due to German law prohibiting discussion of current proceedings), but readily admitted to it when someone else found it? Or are we to believe the German Federal Office of Criminal Investigation were they to claim that JAP is no longer tracking specific requests?

    Suppose that tomorrow it's leaked that PGP Corp. planted a backdoor in the initial release of PGP 8.0 products. PGP Corp. comes out and says, "sorry about that, folks, the feds didn't give us a choice. It's all gone now, we promise!" Would you still trust PGP for anything nontrivial? I wouldn't.

    The fact is that JAP is forever tainted, regardless of whether or not anything shady is still taking place. Forks, especially those based somewhere other than Germany, would stand to gain a large userbase.

    --
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  2. There's no replacement needed by m.koch · · Score: 2, Informative

    The JAP service was not back-doored. It was forced to log access to a specific website (which was offering child porn), but now a court decided that the initial claims were not legal. It's true that they didn't mention the logging but the used software is open source, which is why the whole thing got unrevealed: JAP gave it to open source and the people found the logging functions. The whole subject is now extensively documented here (no translation, sorry).
    In my opinion the JAP people did their utmost to keep this service as it was meant to be. There are laws which can't be ignored, in every country.
    In fact, IP logging in germany has no consequences except if you're a german resident, which is why I don't really understand the problem.