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Revamping Freenet
Posted by
Hemos
on Mon May 16, 2005 10:15 AM
from the rebuild-ground-up dept.
from the rebuild-ground-up dept.
N3wsByt3 writes "Many will have heard about the anonymous P2P-system Freenet. What many probably don't know is, that a big change is at hand: the Freenet developers have decided to drop all support for the 0.5x version, to skip version 0.6 and to completely revamp the 0.7 build into some kind of poorly described, presumably scalable darknet. The main coder even threatened to quit if such a darknet would be rejected.
So, is it finally going the right way with the development of Freenet? Maybe not, since they seem reluctant to provide real data and rather rely on security through obfuscation, and then there is still the problem of their general inability in regard to pooling human resources, which, for any OSS project, is of the utmost importance." Obviously, the article submitter has his own feelings on Freenet, but notwithstanding that, what's the latest scuttlebutt from within the Freenet crowd?
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How many revamps (Score:5, Insightful)
Freenet is not so anonymous (Score:5, Informative)
Perhaps, BUT.... (Score:4, Informative)
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Newsbyte is a well known troll (Score:5, Informative)
Matthew has indeed indicated that he believes it is essential that we support "trusted links" in Freenet, and the other core Freenet developers, myself included, agree with him - so Newsbyte's attempt to stir that up into some kind of controversy is just another example of his trolling.
I have no idea where Newsbyte's accusation that we are relying on security through obscurity comes from, certainly the archived email he links do doesn't seem to support any such claim.
As for the blog entry he links to, it essentially boils down to whining about why we don't implement each and every one of his suggestions.
When considering the value of Newsbyte's opinions, I would urge you to look first at what he has actually contributed to the project, versus those that he seeks to criticise.
Re:Newsbyte is a well known troll (Score:5, Informative)
With pleasure. Freenet has indeed had its fair share of problems, including an increasingly complex codebase that suffers from a lot of legacy code and abandoned ideas. That is why Freenet 0.7, the next major release, will be quite a significant rewrite.
Here [gmane.org] is a recent email I sent describing the plan for 0.7:
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speed (Score:5, Insightful)
Please ignore flamebait (Score:5, Insightful)
I suggest that people who want to know the whole story check out the mailing lists going back a month or so.
Less talk, more code (Score:5, Insightful)
bait (Score:5, Interesting)
5. Slashdot effect doesn't write off the network for a month after release; if we grow by invitation, it will take longer to grow, but we will end up with a better network, and we won't generally have the collapse we have seen every time we've done a release.
this might just be an attempt to bait the slashdot crowd into trying out freenet so that freenet's userbase grows and the speed become reasonable.
Re:bait (Score:5, Insightful)
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Nothing wrong with obfuscation (Score:5, Interesting)
A lot of people seem to be confused about obfuscation / obscurity.
Obscurity or hiding things is a perfectly valid security technique, and can be used as a component of a defense in depth strategy. One of the main reasons people love NAT boxes is because they provide this property automatically. (I don't like them for other properties they have, and a firewall combinded with public address space will be just as effective at providing this specific property).
People are stretching the meaning of Kirchoff's theorm. Krichoff was refering to crytographic algorithms when he said that there is no security in obscurity - the security of a crytographic algorithm should only rely on the secrecy of key. You should assume that the functioning of the algorithm will eventually be discovered by your adversaries, and therefore shouldn't make the security of the system depend on the functioning of the algorithm being kept secret. That being said, restricting knowledge of what algorithm you're using will make a contribution of the system being secured, as it can add to the depth an adversary has to penetrate.
Great, here come the CP trolls (Score:5, Insightful)
Every time there's a freenet article on
Personally, I see Freenet as an experiment in what's possible. There's an abstract problem statement: how do you share data anonymously? And Freenet attempts to provide a solution to that problem. There are many valid uses for a solution to that particular problem. The canonical example is "dissidents in ". But it goes beyond that. Everything from corporate and government whistleblowers even in relatively free countries, to those who want to expose sensitive information they might be privy to without giving themselves away.
The problem is that such a system, by design, is necessarily going to be useful for people that organize activities and spread information that has little redeeming value. If dissidents and whistleblowers can obtain anonymity when sharing information, then so can child pornographers and terrorists and gangsters and whoever else.
This dilemma occurs with many systems based on an ideology of freedom and opposition to censorship. The US constitution's first amendment guarantees the right of NAMBLA to express their views on a public webpage.
The point is, freedom to any extent in the public commons will, necessarily, support both good and bad uses of that freedom. The question people have to ask themselves is wether their belief in the ideology behind that freedom is worth the tradeoff or not.
If you believe that the "bad guys" should be kept off of Freenet, then you don't believe in Freenet, or any other truly censorship-free information sharing system.
-Laxitive
Re:Great, here come the CP trolls (Score:5, Insightful)
The point of view of most of the developers (and myself), however, is that you can be either for or against absolute, anonymous free speech. You clearly fall into the "against" camp. Most of those working on the network, however, believe that the benefits of having uncensored speech outweigh the cost. That the gains in human rights from publishing police brutality videos outweigh the losses from making terrorist discussion easy. That the gains from making DeCSS available outweigh the costs of copyright infringement. That the gains from proof of election fraud outweigh the losses from child porn. You're more than welcome to disagree with that point; I understand your position. However, there is another side, and it's more complex than "I want my child porn."
Me, I think I'll support Freenet and all that it entails, even if the results aren't perfect.
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Re:Great, here come the CP trolls (Score:5, Insightful)
After careful consideration of your point, I realize the error of my ways.
Specifically, I realize that by running a Freenet node, I would be allowing others to use it the way you've said. I would be providing support to a system that, as a whole, exploits children.
I have since determined that telephones and video cameras are used in the production of CP. I can no longer supply the phone company or video empires with the money I pay for their products, since their products are used for bad things, as well as good.
I think we should do the same to the gun manufacturers, since we all know how guns are used.
Seriously though, the technology (Freenet) does not exploit children. People exploit children. Don't ban technology because it is effective. Freenet has NEVER exploited a single child any more or less than a telephone, the US Postal Service, and the entire line of Sony Handicam(TM)'s.
You do realize that by the time the video hits whatever distribution system that it's already too late, right? If you want to protect the children...why not actually protect the children. Don't use abused children further as an excuse because you're uncomfortable with other people expressing their rights outside of some sort of central control--because that's the object of Freenet--for better (political reform) OR worse (abuse of children for profit).
Finally, realize that the First Amendment is not what it used to be. There was a time that speech and thought could not be ultimately suppressed. Given the current state of technology, I'm not sure that will be sustained. Disturbing as it may be, someday the First Amendment may not be a nod to an unsupressable reality, but it will be that last bastion between an unscrupulous bureacratic machine and individual freedoms.
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Same old, same old (Score:5, Insightful)
Frankly, for Freenet to have any future, I think the developers need to get used to the idea of _not breaking it_ every six months. Otherwise the few people with the enthusiasm required to keep it operating are going to find better things to do with their time.
You can either have a research network or a viable, usable system, you can't have both. If it ever gets to a viable, usable network, I might give it a try again, but it's pointless when you can't insert anything and can barely retrieve anything.
Re:Unfortunately, not a troll (Score:4, Insightful)
I thought that was one of the points, that noone can reasonably find out what is on his node?
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Re:FreeNet Is Lost (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:FreeNet Is Lost (Score:5, Informative)
However, it is relatively easy to see what is on freenet at large. There are several spiders that roam freenet and index freesites they come across. It's sort of like what Google does. So all one has to do is load up these indexes and see how many of the sites are child porn related. Another way to tell is load up Frost and see how many of the boards of child porn related.
There's a very large number of them.
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Re:Child pornography (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Child pornography (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Child pornography (Score:5, Insightful)
* Should people be allowed to post any pornography at all? (illegal in a number of countries)
* Should people be allowed to post a glowing post of support for Falun Gong? (illegal in China)
* Should people be allowed to publish a diatribe denying that the holocaust occurred? (illegal in much of Europe)
Etc. You can claim that, "Well, allowing the posting of child pornography or terrorism-related materials offends universal sensibilities", but this obviously isn't true, or the material wouldn't be being posted in the first place (not to mention, one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter). Just as a demonstration of how much people's sensibilities are different in different parts of the world, this [afghannews.net] (originally posted on msnbc.com) covers an interview with an Afghan mother who supported her daugter's execution by stoning for the crime of adultery ("My daughter is a criminal. If she hadn't been killed, I could never hold my head up again in my community.")
If the data is being created through abusive means, go after the source of the data. If the data is being used to plan violent action, use proper security at likely targets (not like it's hard for people to hatch plans in secret anyways - this is nothing new). The fact of the matter is that data wants to be free.
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Re:Child pornography (Score:5, Insightful)
Uh, if you are hosting child porn, you are the host of the data, under current law. Many nations are now erasing the line between being a "distributor" of this material and being in possession of it. Really, you need to know this, because you will find very few individuals in Western societies who will vigorously defend you in public or the courts. You will find out what "pariah" means.
And in the strict sense, with Freenet you are a distributor in any case - you are providing a service to obtain this material - remember under the law ignorance is not an excuse, you could find it difficult to claim you were an unwitting accomplice.
Parent
Re:Child pornography (Score:5, Interesting)
Why do you get that impression? "Child pornography" is just the red herring people always trot out when they want to censor speech.
You've heard the expression "I disagree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it," yes? Your idea of "offensive content" may differ wildly from someone else's; the question becomes "who is right?" Sure, you can refuse to run a FreeNet node because you're scared some evil recipe for "instant terror version 3.4" might get stored there or a nasty evil child pornographer might post some horrid icky pictures you don't like onto FreeNet and your node happens to harbor some of the data, but in that case you really are censoring in your own way.
The FAQ's response to this concern is dead-on right. Even with child pornography, you're trying to treat the symptoms instead of the disease when you reason like this -- "oh I'm not running that because it doesn't actively stop child pornographers!" Bad news, buddy, the internet itself doesn't "actively stop" any pornographers. Are you just going to unplug so your browser cache doesn't accidentally store a thumbnail with content that offends you?
If you want to censor what you participate in on a free speech-centric network, you don't belong there. If you believe that, ultimately, full-fledged freedom of speech is more vital to our society than taking a sad, impotent stab at a group you don't like, then run a damned node and deal with the fact that you may not like what lives on it. Remember, there's a far better chance that text a government doesn't like (but that you do like) will be stored on your node than pics of little Suzie.
Claiming FreeNet was just "designed" for child porn is like saying Slashdot was designed to attract trolls. Sure, it happened, but that wasn't the original intent; back when it started, I think they honestly wanted to encourage and support open, public debate on important topics. Heh. Whoops. :)
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Re:Child pornography (Score:5, Insightful)
There is not a universal code of what is acceptable to everyone, there is just your own personal code. This may fit the mold of where you live or it may not. The question is not "Should a line be drawn?", everyone would agree there is a line. However "Where do you draw the line on issue X?" is something that cannot be answered globally. The freenet people have taken the approach that since the line cannot be drawn in a specific place, let's just ignore it altogether and let anything go. Interesting experiment if you ask me. I'm not interested in using it, but I am not morally opposed to it just because it does not stop those I disagree with from communicating. As a user of PGP that would be damn hypocritical of me wouldn't it?
Finkployd
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Re:Is Freenet doomed to failure by design? (Score:5, Insightful)
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