File-sharing 'darknet' unveiled
Aug 16, 2006
A "darknet" service that allows users to share music files anonymously on the
web has been launched in Sweden.
Relakks, as the service is known, allows users to send and receive files
through a heavily-encrypted connection.
It is the first commercial example of a darknet, a virtual network set up to
share files between trusted users.
The service is endorsed by political group the Pirate Party which is running
for election in Sweden under a banner to reform the country's copyright laws.
"There are many legitimate reasons to want to be completely anonymous on the
internet," said Rickard Falkvinge, chairman of the Pirate Party.
"The right to exchange information in private is fundamental to the democratic
society. Without a safe and convenient way of accessing the internet
anonymously,
this right is rendered null and void."
A darknet is a cordoned-off, anonymised section of the net where users can
meet, chat and swap data.
Usually darknets are confined to small tight-knit groups such as hackers who
use the secure connections to distribute information and hacking tools.
They have also been used by paedophiles to distribute images of child abuse.
Many are invitation-only services where potential members have to upload
material to prove themselves to the group before they are granted full access.
Similar identity-hiding tools such as Tor are used by net dissidents in
countries like China to avoid persecution for their activities on the web.
Previous attempts to launch large scale anonymous networks, such as Nullsoft's
Waste program have been unsuccessful. After its release in 2003, Waste was
removed form distribution by Nullsoft's parent company AOL.
The new system claims to be the world's first commercial darknet. It is
provided by Swedish company Relakks and is endorsed by the Pirate Party.
It works by giving a user's computer a new IP address, the unique number the
machine uses to identify itself and communicate with other machines over the
net.
IP numbers allocated by your internet service provider (ISP) can be used to
trace and identify a specific computer on a network.
Computers using the Relakks system look like they have a Swedish IP address, no
matter where they are in the world.
Users can then share files, such as music or films, with any other users. In
theory anyone monitoring user's online activities will not be able to trace
their geographical location.
The Pirate Party acknowledge that the service could be used to distribute
copyright material or other content such as images of child abuse.
"We hear the argument a lot," Mr Falkvinge told the BBC News website. "No, we
don't have any control over what is being sent over the network but that's
the point.
"People who want to hide their activities online already have the means to do
so. We're just giving those tools to the general public."
File sharing and copyright law is a divisive topic in Sweden. Until recently
the country was a hotbed of piracy where films, music and software were readily
swapped online.
Last year, it outlawed the unauthorised downloading of copyrighted movies and
music in an attempt to curb piracy, after criticism from Hollywood.
The Pirate Party was launched in part to temper what they say are "aggressive"
tactics by the entertainment industry to enforce copyright infringement.
They say techniques such as tracing IP addresses threaten privacy and democracy.
The Relakks service, they say, offers people the ability to use the internet
"without fear of being monitored or logged". It costs five euro (£3) per month
with some of the funds going towards supporting the Pirate Party.
However, not everyone is convinced that it is what it claims to be.
In a forum on the US website of the Pirate Party, a post by a user called
Smironv questioned whether the service is really anonymous.
"You can't connect to Relakks anonymously, because then they'd have no way of
verifying you are a paying customer - so Relakks knows who you really are
when all your traffic goes through them.
"What is the difference between trusting them and trusting my own ISP not to
give me away?"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4798059.stm
Vikas Kapoor,
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