I've just read an excellent article that mentions Freenet. The article is primarily about an encrypted distributed backup system and how such an encrypted system looks like Freenet. This backup system would be another use for encrypted information on your hard drive for which you lack a key. If many people / businesses used such a system it would make it a lot harder to outlaw encryption / encryption when you dont have the key.
This could be a killer application and possible use for a Freenet type system although since no one would be requesting the backup it would tend to fall off Freenet. Here's the link and a quick exerpt: http://comment.zdnet.co.uk/rupertgoodwins/0,39020691,39215931,00.htm A better backup can restore online freedoms [...] With Freenet, the users don't know what's in the data, nor do they know who provided it or where it's going, which makes it impossible to prosecute someone for wilfully hosting or distributing illicit material. One potential solution is being discussed whereby it would be illegal to have encrypted material on your system to which you had no key; the argument goes that if you do, you must be up to no good. It's an extension of the old "if you're innocent, you have nothing to hide" argument for police surveillance; morally and logically null though it is, we live in times where such ideas are routinely turned into law. Yet the existence and widespread use of distributed backup would be a sovereign cure to such nonsense. It would demonstrate just how much potential for good exists if we're allowed to create and experiment with the tools we've developed, and not limited by moral panic or the wish of established interests to preserve the status quo. And my friend would no longer be stuck with a large collection of drinks coasters that once held his life's work. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <https://emu.freenetproject.org/pipermail/tech/attachments/20050914/29aacb7f/attachment.html>
