Re: Freenet or ?

["Brendan Kidwell-2" <user=1552@nabble.blu.org>]

 On 2/12/08, Eric Chadbourne <[hidden email]> wrote: 
> 
> Hi all.  I've just started reading the docs and Freenet looks pretty 
> neat but the data store makes me slightly uncomfortable.  Anybody use it 
> on Linux?  Comments?  Another similar app I should look at?  Thanks for 
> any tips. 
> - Eric C 
> 

What makes you uncomfortable exactly? 

Are you worried about the size of the datastore or the bandwidth you consume 
in your task of pushing data chunks around? You can limit the size of your 
datastore and the amount of bandwidth, to be sure that you're only 
contributing what you can afford to. 

Are you worried about the content stored in your datastore? Freenet is 
designed to make it cryptographically quite difficult to determine WHAT 
exactly you have stored on your freenet node. This allows for "plausible 
deniability". Legally, it can't be argued that you're guilty of storing and 
forwarding any particular content; you're merely guilty of running a Freenet 
node. (For the moment, it's still legal to run a Freenet node in the US.) If 
you don't know what passes through your node and you can't choose to censor 
it, then you have no liability with regard to that content. 

Are you worried about the stability of the node software and the safety of 
your system? Run it under a separate username with the latest version of Sun 
Java. Your personal files will be safe, and the node itself will be 
reasonably stable. 

If you're worried about the philosophical implications of kiddie porn and 
bomb plans and other intellectual contraband possibly touching your computer 
without your knowledge, then Freenet is not for you. The designers of the 
system decided that making censorship completely impossible was more 
important than stopping kiddie porn. 

I gave Freenet another go last week after a year or two of waiting around 
for significant news from the project. I tried out the January 2008 build 
(version 0.7a2) and I was pleasantly surprised at how the speed and 
reliability of the network has improved. It keeps inching along towards 
"ready for prime time" status. The usenet-like "Frost" bulletin boards look 
cool. Last time I tried to use Frost, I couldn't get it to work at all, 
either because of network failures or terrible UI or both, but both appear 
to be much improved now. 

Brendan Kidwell 

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