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Would You Rent Out Your Unused Drive Space?

Posted by timothy on from the how-plausible-is-your-denial? dept.

Press2ToContinue writes "There is a new idea out there, proposed by Shawn Wilkinson, Tome Boshevski & Josh Brandof, that if you have unused disk space on your HD that you should rent it out. It is a great idea and the concept may have a whole range of implementations. The 3 guys describe their endeavor as: "Storj is a peer-to-peer cloud storage network implementing end-to-end encryption would allow users to transfer and share data without reliance on a third party data provider. The removal of central controls would eliminate most traditional data failures and outages, as well as significantly increasing security, privacy, and data control. A peer-to-peer network and basic encryption serve as a solution for most problems, but we must offer proper incentivisation for users to properly participate in this network."

5 of 331 comments (clear)

  1. Legally difficult by 15Bit · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In the UK at least, you can go to jail for not giving up the decryption keys/password for data stored on your hard disk. As forgetting the pass phrase is not a legitimate excuse, i doubt they would accept the idea that it is someone else's data. So in the event that the police have any excuse to investigate your hard drives, this is a instant ticket to jail.

    1. Re:Legally difficult by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Just another reason to not visit the UK, not that people in the UK or anywhere else have much of a reason to visit the US these days. I can't say I'd recommend it anyway, and I live here.

      Funny how things that happen all the time are not a legitimate excuse, unless of course they happen to law enforcement. Forget your password (in the UK), potential jail time! Law enforcement "forgets" to share evidence that might cast doubt on your alleged guilt (in the US)--well, that's OK. It must have been a legitimate mistake.

      You're not aware of one of the warehouse full of legal codes you're supposed to obey on a daily basis? That's no excuse. Why didn't you memorize something that nobody in the entire legal profession knows in its entirety? Law enforcement arrests you for something that's not actually illegal (like filming the police), they don't suffer any consequences even though that's either ignorance or willful ignorance of the law.

      Side comment: it's really time to end this "ignorance of the law is no excuse" bullshit. That particular bit of claptrap has no legitimacy in today's society.

  2. Re:Same in US by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You are a sex offender by just having it.

    This. In some US jurisdictions, you are added to the sex offender registry on indictment, even if you aren't convicted. And then you have to work like hell to get yourself off of it if the charges are dropped or you are found not guilty. The burden is on the accused, when it should be on the State.

    Source: I worked in law enforcement for a decade and a half, and a good bit of that time was spent working with the sex offender registry on the back end.

    dkj

  3. Re:I'm Charlie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I dunno and YMMV.

    Draw what you want. I have no problems with cartoons, or even very realistic drawn/painted/whatever imagined images depicting all kinds of crazy shit. In my country, even written stories depicting or discussing underage sex is considered illegal by the letter of the law. Which I happen to agree, is madness. Sexuality doesn't just lie dormant and 'switch on' when you hit 18 or 21 or whatever the law says is cool in your neck of the woods. And discussing it in art form is probably healthy. Much of it wont float my particular boat but I don't think that should make 'art work' illegal.

    BUT. For a while I worked in a role where I was exposed to kiddie porn.... And, well, I wouldn't think of it as art. To my mind it was just evidence (photo and/or video) of folks actually raping kids. It really wasn't cool. And if it puts a dint in the practice, I don't think I'd characterize aggressively pursuing leads, as madness.

    I know you can't put the genie back in the bottle, but if you haven't seen it, you might have a skewed or misinformed view of what kiddie porn actually is. You might think its pictures of kids and adults having sex. But its not.

    If you're really not sure, imagine someone you really dislike, from a social group you're not into, quintessentially the last person on earth you'd consider in being with in a sexual context. Imagine that person, with the help of a several buddies, kidnapping you and doing what ever they wanted to you, while you struggle futilely, scream in pain, and as your strength ebbs, plead, weeping and begging them to stop. Only they don't stop until they're all spent. And the whole time, you're under studio lights and there are people with cameras in your face and circling you taking pictures and videos of it to share your pain and humiliation with the world at large. And now imagine its happening to your 8 years old self.

    No. Simply turning a blind eye... to my mind that would be madness.

  4. Re:I'm Charlie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Funny how we all shake our heads at the Muslims, who kill over pictures, but considering this whole kiddie porn madness: we're not any better. It's just pictures. Cartoons even in some cases.

    Well, it is "do as I say not as I do."

    http://cryptome.org/2014/09/giganews-fbi.htm

    I am not going to argue what constitutes "porn" or "age of consent" and whether distribution hurts or helps child abuse...(when it is copyrighted music/movies, digital copies "hurt" the MPAA and RIAA...yet, when it is "bad pictures" distribution finances + helps the abusers...)

    I merely point out there is a huge double standard here.

    I have no sympathy for child abuse, but yes, pictures are very different from doing such acts.

    I am amazed you got modded up, quite honestly!