John Meeks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > The new information about version 0.7 sounds pretty good, but one thing > about it concerns me. Assuming I don't know anyone who is using freenet, > how do I get onto the network? (Remember, I'm asking this about the next > version, since it says you can only connect if a "friend" lets you. > Assuming I don't have a friend already using freenet, how do I get > connected?)
As I understand it there will be two options : join the opennet, which is public and harvestable like the current freenet (but hopefully has better performance etc), or join / create a private darknet which isn't. However, given that the routing model is predicated around the "friends form small-world networks" concept I think even the opennet is supposed to be joined via the noderefs of friend(s). This is of concern to me as well, I don't know anyone IRL who runs freenet. We could have a rotating public nodes system like we currently do with seednodes.ref, but surely this would horribly break the routing? > This change worries me (unless I'm mis-understanding it), since it > basically ties the network to a group of real-life friends, it creates a > nice friendly map that the authorities could use to find everyone > interested in a given subject. I don't think the Chinese government would > have any problems getting someone's computer and seeing all the "friends" > it lists. The idea of darknets is that they're not practical to detect. Assuming this is the case, if e.g. CCP busted one darknet-running dissident through some other means and got the chance to examine their computer, they could also find others in that darknet. Hopefully dissidents in such situations have the sense to organise like terrorist cells so that damage is limited in this case. > In short, it seems like this change would create a set of isolated > networks, and remove the plausable deniability of the previous network. True to some extent, but the whole point of darknets is that they are isolated and secret. There is already a seperate freenet 0.5 network in China. An opennet node could be run to push content from darknets onto the public network, or vice versa, although this is probably risky for a dissident to do. > The "network of trust" concept seems to me to be deeply flawed, since > spies have been able to infiltrate even the most guarded networks of > "friends" (ie. the Mafia, the Manhattan project, etc). Trusting "some guy > I met on the internet" doesn't seem like something I'd really want to do. Yeah, I could find freenet people on the 'net but not IRL, and as you say this makes strong trust difficult. Obviously core project people are trustworthy but if we all connect to them then AFAICS routing breaks (plus their nodes would likely be DDoS'd ..) > I guess another way to look at it is that the network seems to be going > towards being more useful for people in countries like China and less > useful for people in the US. Plausable deniability is more useful in the > US, whereas secrecy is more useful in China. While I feel for people in > China, I myself am in the US, and so therefore look at the project from my > point of view (especially in the current political climate). It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that freenet could be banned in western countries too. The UK gov for example is reactionary, authoritarian and power hungry - all it would take is one high-profile paedophille case or suchlike to whip the tabloids up into a frenzy, and a wish list bill pre-written by the security services could probably be rushed through parliament. We already have state level internet censorship and monitoring. The US is much the same, in spite of supposed constitutional free speech protections. > I'm also a bit concerned about the constant restarts, it seems that the > project is following the "fad security of the month" (although networks of > trust were around with PGP like 10 years ago). Well, as you see there will still be an opennet sort of like the current freenet. The reasons given over the months for the other changes and in particular the introduction of darknets all seem rational to me. It's a fact that freenet 0.5 doesn't perform very well, is harvestable etc and these problems need to be addressed somehow. > Anyway, the reason I'm asking about this is because I currently have > Paypal set up to donate $20/month to the project, but I'm not > sure if I like the direction it's going. > > Any better explanation of how this will work (mainly "how can I connect if > I don't already know someone") would be greately appreciated. > > Thanks. > > --- John Bob _______________________________________________ Support mailing list Support@freenetproject.org http://news.gmane.org/gmane.network.freenet.support Unsubscribe at http://dodo.freenetproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/support Or mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
