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Brightnets are Owner Free File Systems
elucido writes "OFF, or the Owner-Free Filesystem is a distributed filesystem in which everything is stored in reference to randomized data blocks, as opposed to a 1:1 copy of the original data being inserted. The creators of the Owner-Free Filesystem have coined a new term to define the network: A brightnet. Nobody shares any copyrighted files, and therefore nobody needs to hide away. OFF provides a platform through which data can be stored (publicly or otherwise) in a discreet, distributed manner. The system allows for personal privacy because data (blocks) being transferred from peer to peer do not bear any relation to the original data. Incidentally, no data passing through the network can be considered copyrighted because the means by which it is represented is truly random." Their
main wiki page discusses a bit of what this means and how it might work as well. I've been saying that we need this for many years now, if only because we all have 10 gigs free on our machines and if we could RAID the internet we'd need fewer hard drives.
the wiki explains it a little better. It's sort of cool. It breaks all the data in 128K randomized chunks, and those chunks can also be used as well to represent OTHER data, because it's all about the relationship of the radomized chunks, not just the chunks themselves.
Dude, I think I can see my house from here.
As a rule, you don't copyright the exact data (i.e. the sequence of numbers representing a digital file). You copyright the actual tangible information. Attempting to abstract the law into mathematics is pointless. They are not compatible.
That's not the point. The point is that if someone downloads blocks from me to be used for copyrighted material, I cannot know what it is used for. Maybe these block also encode legal stuff. Because the same block encodes multiple files, and because a request does not state what the data is gonna be used for, I (probably) cannot be holded responsable for sharing copyrighted material.
It's not encryption. What you will be downloading is several random files that when combined make up whatever you want.
The cool thing is that the files really are random. They are simply numbers that can be combined to make a copyrighted file but don't have to be.
In other words: (As stated on the wiki) you will infringe on copyright the second the random files are combined. But downloading and sharing the files is not a copyright infringement.
However, both are unethical and ineffective anachronisms long overdue for abolition.
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Use the GPL. It's a legal device against litigation.
You do realize that the GPL is absolutely meaningless without copyright law, do you? Did you ever actually read the GPL?
"Trojan Generic..." Yeah, right. That's not a trojan sig that the antivirus recognized, it's just a heuristic that tags possible malware. Only 3 out of 32 antivirus programs complain. The message "Suspicious Self Modifying File" indicates that it's probably just because they used an uncommon packer.
OFFsystem sez:
It seems some moderators are not aware of the way some atheists use the term "bright"...
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?