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"Darknets" cast to cloak identities of computer file swappers

[Computer connected to the internet]
Internet rebels began testing a new weapon that threatens to scuttle
efforts to stop illicit online music swapping.

Internet privacy activists at Freenet Project posted word on their
website that they were looking for savvy programmers to test a refined
version "darknet" software designed to keep file swappers anonymous.

Freenet's call for stealth software test pilots came slightly more
than a month after the US Supreme Court struck a blow for the
entertainment industry by equating internet sharing of music with
"garden variety theft."

The court ruled that services, such as Grokster, that abet rogue
swapping of music can be held accountable as accomplices.

The decision was proclaimed a landmark victory by Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA).

"There will always be a degree of piracy online, as there is piracy on
the street," said Jonathan Lamy of the RIAA.

"Our objective is to bring piracy under sufficient control where
legitimate services can compete and flourish."

Hip technophiles tuned into life in Silicon Valley and San Francisco
scoffed, saying file swappers would only get sneakier.

Freenet's new software was heralded as "scalable," which means it
would enable large numbers of stealth users to freely share files
online, Doug Tygar, a computer professor at the University of
California, Berkeley, told AFP.

Previous versions of secret file sharing software were seen as
manageable by the recording industry because the programs were
unwieldy and limited in the numbers of people who could use them.

"Even if this version of Freenet doesn't meet its goals, I can assure
you they will continue to refine their software," Tygar said.

"It is just a matter of time before anonymous file sharing networks
become available."

The recording industry will need to evolve to keep its grip on
copyrighted material, Tygar said.

Copyright holders must build better technological locks to guard their
property, he said.

"The onus is on the people producing copyrighted material to protect
that material," Tygar said.

"That has always been the case," he continued. "It was the case when
the Xerox was invented, and you might argue it was the case when the
pencil and paper were invented."

The test software is "neither user-friendly nor secure at this point,"
Freenet reported on its website.

The project's stated intent is "making a globally scalable
friend-to-friend darknet which eliminates a swathe of attacks and
makes Freenet far more usable in the short term in hostile regimes
such as China and the Middle East."

China uses Internet "fire walls" to block secret sharing of computer
files on the Internet, Tygar said. The US recording industry endorses
similar online obstacles, Tygar said.

If Freenet's darknet software lives up to its promise, then
"techniques used today to trace individual users simply will not
work," Tygar said.

"The only way to ensure that a democracy will remain effective is to
ensure that the government cannot control its population's ability to
share information, to communicate," the Freenet website philosophy
page states.

"The core problem with copyright is that enforcement of it requires
monitoring of communications, and you cannot be guaranteed free speech
if someone is monitoring everything you say."

== Quote from RichA ()'s article

> The test software is "neither user-friendly nor secure at this point,"
> Freenet reported on its website.

The software is just broken, it doesn't work!
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Posted via: http://www.cyberjustice.org