Author: toad Date: 2008-06-17 11:18:58 +0000 (Tue, 17 Jun 2008) New Revision: 20395
Modified: trunk/website/pages/en/faq.php Log: FAQ: Update legal section, add a section on blocking by national firewalls, point to legal and blocking sections in copyright section. Modified: trunk/website/pages/en/faq.php =================================================================== --- trunk/website/pages/en/faq.php 2008-06-17 07:15:05 UTC (rev 20394) +++ trunk/website/pages/en/faq.php 2008-06-17 11:18:58 UTC (rev 20395) @@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ </li><li><a href="#donate-more-bw">All my friends donate very little space and bandwidth. Why should I donate more?</a> </li><li><a href="#donate-lot">If I donate a lot will my experience improve significantly?</a> </li><li><a href="#legal">Is Freenet legal?</a> +</li><li><a href="#blocked">Is Freenet blocked by national firewalls?</a> </li><li><a href="#trouble">Can I get trouble if I run a node?</a> </li><li><a href="#copyright">What about copyright?</a> </li><li><a href="#childporn">What about child porn, offensive content or terrorism?</a> @@ -109,21 +110,37 @@ counts more than diskspace.</p> <p><b id="legal">Is Freenet legal?</b><br> -If by legal you mean not illegal, then yes it is. Of course, -anything can be found to be illegal at some point in the future, and -the law can be an ass sometimes, so we can make no guarantee about Freenet's future legality. -You might be interested in <a href="http://www.eff.org/wp/iaal-what-peer-peer-developers-need-know-about-copyright-law";>the EFF's advice</a> to peer to peer developers. -There have been questions raised about Freenet's legality in France under the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DADVSI";>DADVSI</a>, -and its legality across the EU should <a href="http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/ipred2/ipred2.html";>IPRED2</a> pass. -Also we have grounds to believe that Freenet 0.5 is <a href="http://wiki.freenetproject.org/China";>blocked</a> in China, although that doesn't necessarily make it illegal (the website of course has been blocked since forever). -If you want legal advice, ask a lawyer. +We don't currently know of any prosecutions for using merely using Freenet. +Some people claim that the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DADVSI";>DADVSI</a> +makes Freenet illegal in France; others have told us about the German data retention +law which allegedly requires anonymity systems to retain enough data to trace web +requests, which may or may not apply to us. Europe-wide, the +<a href="http://www.fsfeurope.org/projects/ipred2/ipred2.html";>IPRED2</a> may have +wide-ranging effects, including on Freenet, should it pass... or it may not. +Many of these things are arguable either way (depending on how broadly the +legislation is applied) and will have to be decided in caselaw. +The law can be an ass sometimes. You can read the EFF's advice to peer to peer developers +<a href="http://www.eff.org/wp/iaal-what-peer-peer-developers-need-know-about-copyright-law";>here</a>. +If you need legal advice, talk to a lawyer. Also read the next section especially if you +are in China; blocking the protocol may suggest the authorities don't like us! </p> +<p><b id="blocked">Is Freenet blocked by national firewalls?</b><br> +The Chinese national firewall (Golden Shield) has blocked our website for many years, +and was observed in 2005 to block the 0.5 protocol as well. This suggests China doesn't +like us, so be careful if you run Freenet in China. Some other countries such as the +United Kingdom are <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7240234.stm";>seriously considering</a> +forcing ISPs to block all peer to peer systems capable of sharing illegal files; this +would probably include Freenet. Freenet 0.7 has some minimal defences against blocking; +the protocol is relatively hard to identify (we will make this a lot harder in future), +and it supports a <a href="http://wiki.freenetproject.org/DarkNet";>darknet</a> mode +(i.e. only connecting to your friends) which makes automated harvesting and blocking +of nodes very difficult. + <p><b id="trouble">Can I get trouble if I run a node?</b><br> -This is related to the previous question. We have done everything +This is related to <a href="#legal">"Is Freenet legal?"</a>. We have done everything we can to make it extremely difficult for any sane legal system to justify punishing someone for running a Freenet - node, and there is little precedent for such action in today's developed countries. Many legal systems recognise the importance of freedom of speech, which is Freenet's @@ -132,7 +149,9 @@ as to whether to take that risk.</p> <p><b id="copyright">What about copyright?</b><br> -There are some excellent thoughts on this subject on the <a href="/philosophy.html">Philosophy</a> page.</p> +There are some excellent thoughts on this subject on the <a href="/philosophy.html">Philosophy</a> page. +Specific copyright-related laws may be a problem, please read <a href="#legal">Is Freenet legal?</a> +and <a href="#blocked">Is Freenet blocked by national firewalls?</a>.</p> <p><b id="childporn">What about child porn, offensive content or terrorism?</b><br> While most people wish that child pornography and terrorism did not
