I ain't no lawyer either, but I looked at the DMCA and wrote a quick
analysis of how various provisions might or might not apply to Freenet
nodes, at http://www.geocrawler.com/archives/3/929/2000/3/50/3523198/.
My conclusion:
In summary, Freenet nodes in the US will probably be obligated to have
some mechanism to identify and block specific copyrighted materials
once they are notified by the copyright holders. Otherwise they will
be liable themselves for copyright infringement. Whether the internal
Freenet ref links will be forced to be blocked is more questionable.
You might be interested in this README entry from the OpenNap cvs
repository, just put in yesterday morning:
: [opennap 0.40]
:
: Added a `block' configuration file which contains a list of regular
: expressions. Any file a client attempts to share that matches one of the
: regexps will be discarded and unavailable for download via the server. See
: sample.block for a useful list to begin with.
Hmmm, wonder why they did that? Think it might have had a little
something to do with the DMCA and the recent Napster decision?
Look at the statement Troy has at troyboy.dyndns.org:
: This is a Freenet node. It provides transitory digital network
: communications through an anonymous, uncensored network. The node operator
: has no knowledge of what information may pass through, or reside on,
: this server. But, if you can provide the information required by 17
: U.S.C. 512(c)(3), including "information reasonably sufficient to permit
: the service provider to locate the material," then the node operator
: will remove the material.
The writing's on the wall here, folks. Ultimately I am afraid that
Freenet will not be legally runnable in the U.S. without a blocking
mechanism. I wouldn't rush to put it in unless or until people start
getting legal notices, but eventually the issue will have to be dealt
with. Either Freenet accepts that the U.S. market is off limits, or it
provides a means to block certain data. Neither is an attractive choice.
Hal
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