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"The logic is sound, the apparent benefit even
desirable."
Agreed. Well, what you know? We agree on something!
(namely, that I am right ;-p )
j/k!
"I would hesitate before adding code to Freenet that specifically addresses certain kinds of behavior. " Agreed. Hesitate, as look at it closer and not rush into it. But the basics
is sound. What's more, it doesn't has to be Freenet itself that gets reworked,
it can as well be portrayed as a 'third party tool', which would leave Freenet
cosy GPL'ed and all that.
"When someone asks me why I work on Freenet, I
explain the importance of free information. This is in fact one of Freenet's stated goals; free information by protecting both publishers and consumers of information." Indeed, and to keep that information as free as possible, we need to make
sure it stays that way. It is a bit like the eternal BSD vs. GPL discussions. In
essence, I must agree with the BSD-guys: on itself, BSD IS more free. Yet, I
prefer GPL in that context, even when it has additional restrictions the BSD
lacks. Why? Because it makes it more sure that it *remains*
free.
"Building a module that specifically targets efforts by the RIAA, DOJ, etc. are all categorically *bad*." It doesn't target them specifically, and I disagree it's 'categorically
bad'. Every government or person could ask the same thing as Mr.Riaa would do.
Seen the purpose of Freenet of uncensorability and anonymity...well...that
would greately defeat it's purpose, at least on an individuals'
perspective...now, THAT would be bad.
" And even if according to the legalese we have
some protection under the DMCA, the courts could certainly interpret the law differently putting us and the entire project in a shitcan of trouble. I can only speak for what it's like in the US since I've lived here my whole life, which is to say that the laws are all grey, and final judgement is reserved for the courts, which for better & for worse is how our system "works."" Yes, that's how the system works, but I disagree with your first sentence.
The courts have already ruled that circumventing encryption is illegal under the
DMCA. Laws are, generally speaking, not tailored only to the benefit of one
group, so if it counts for them, it counts for us, and vice versa. Ofcourse, the
courts 'could' always interpret it differently, but I think, for the reasons
given, it's unlikely and certainly there is no reason to suspect they would not
agree with the DMCA, because it's Freenet, and not Mr.Riaa.
"I'd also mention that using Freenet shouldn't automatically be included with "uploading warez". " Agreed.
"I've been using Freenet on and off for 2 years now, and
spend most of my time on Frost and coding FCPTools. I myself am not using Freenet to break our current intellectual property laws, so why should I install this anti-riaa module if my actions are legal?" Jay, you should know better then most others why. Freent *works* that way.
You can not control what comes in your datastore, as you well know. Hence,
whether *you* personnally asked for illegal stuff is irrelevant, you could still
have copyrighted material in your store. Hence, Mr.Riaa could demand that you
remove the chks that constitute the illegal material, just as he already does
now, on the Net, of ISPs. Are you prepared to search for, and delete all chks
Mr.Riaa asks you to? Don't forget, under US law (where you always lived), that
would make you eligable to be convicted.
"Even putting all this aside, this "feature" is like adding scroll-wheel support for XWindow before the GUI code works. If it's something of real value then it belongs on the TODO list for the future until the other more real issues are addressed." Agreed, I said so myself to toad. There are currently more pressing
issues, and the problem I describe will probably not become practise untill
Freenet gets majorily used. Nevertheless, it is something that we should keep an
eye on, and deal with it in the spirit of 'better safe then sorry'.
So, yes, it's not for now, but it certainly should be looked at when
Freent becomes more widely used.
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