London programmer Ian Clarke is putting a little bit of anarchism
back in the Net.
Clarke and a growing group of allied programmers are creating a kind of
parallel Internet called "Freenet," where censorship is impossible, surfers
are anonymous, and content is moved and hosted automatically to points
near the people who want it.
The nascent system is a kind of cross between the
Net-speeding tools developed by Akamai
Technologies and the Napster MP3-swapping
software, which is now shaking the music world.
Some developers say the mix has created a system
that stores and moves content much more efficiently
than the ordinary Web.
But at the network's heart lies its creators' conviction that freedom of
information should be built directly into the networks, rather than left to the
good graces of companies and governments. Freedom from censorship
could protect political dissidents and other unpopular speech, but it also
means Freenet could provide a safe haven for pornographers and
copyright pirates.
And that's fine with its creators.
"Freenet can't afford to make value judgments about the worth of
information," said Ian Clarke, the London programmer who began creating
the network as a student thesis. "The network judges information based on
popularity. If humanity is very interested in pornography, then pornography
will be a big part of the Freenet."
Freenet is the latest entry, and perhaps the most ambitious, in a field of
new "distributed" network services that are making themselves felt far
beyond the technology community.
Programs like Napster, Gnutella, Scour.net's Exchange and others have
brought individual computers into the role once played by massive Web
hosting services. Want a song, or a video or an image? Instead of
searching for it on a Web page, it's now easy to boot up a small program
and download it directly from another person's machine.
On a technological level, that's already causing ripples as Internet service
providers grapple with the implications of their customers'
computers becoming content hosts in their own right. Cox
Communications has threatened to drop some San Diego
Excite@Home cable-modem subscribers who use the
Napster music swapping software, noting that the software
clogged its network.
The new technologies are making even more of an impression on the
entertainment trade. Napster, Gnutella and their rivals have thrown a panic
into the record industry, which sees music listeners trading song files
directly, without buying expensive compact discs. Other industries, such as
Hollywood filmmakers, also see themselves potentially threatened by the
easy file swapping.
Freenet takes these earlier file-swapping programs a step further.
The system is built around the efforts of volunteers, who set up Freenet
network "nodes," or connection points, on their own computers to store
content. Once a song, document, video or anything else is uploaded into
this system, it is distributed around participating computers, automatically
stored in nodes near the users who ask for the content, and removed from
machines where there is no interest.
The system is designed to be almost entirely anonymous. The actual
content on any given host computer changes over time, and will ultimately
be encrypted, so no host will know what is on his or her machine. The
keywords used to search the network for files are also scrambled, making it
extremely difficult for authorities to find out who is hosting what, or who is
looking for what particular piece of information.
Critics say this anonymity could protect distribution of genuinely illegal
material, such as child pornography or pirated software, music and movies.
While it's impossible to tell how many people are using the system at any
given time, about 20,000 people have downloaded an early version of it in
the last few weeks, Clarke says.
Anybody can load files into the system and have them hosted by the
network's volunteers without paying for bandwidth or a Web site's server
space. Clarke uses the example of a band that wants to put its MP3 files
online, but can't afford Web space. The band could upload its song onto
the system, and as long as people occasionally searched for the song, it
would live inside the Freenet.
But others say this is simply transferring the very real costs of bandwidth
and storage space to the volunteers in the network. That could make it
difficult to keep people participating, as they see their own network
connections slowed in the interest of other people's downloads.
"To technologists, that's sexy," said Gene Kam, a Wego.com programmer
who is developing Gnutella software. "But to consumers, it's not as good as
just logging in and getting free MP3 files."
Others say Freenet, if it is able to get out of its early stages, could be the
final nail in the coffin for organizations trying to prevent online piracy.
Since Freenet is wholly decentralized, there is no central company to sue
for copyright violations. And because each "node" is encrypted, and users
anonymous, it will be nearly impossible to track down any individual pirate
or pirated work.
"If this takes off, then the (record industry) and (movie industry) are swiftly
moving into a world where they have no hope of curbing what they see as a
rampant misuse of technology," said Rob Raisch, chief analyst for
technology consulting firm Raisch.com.
Industry analysts say the potential for this kind of system, which has added
new twists to commercial Internet technologies, has yet to be realized,
however.
"I don't think you should think of this as a content distribution system," said
Peter Christy, a Jupiter Communications analyst who closely follows the
caching industry. "You should think of this as a technology that will allow
something else new and exciting that people haven't thought of yet."
More from News.com
� Napster suit tests new copyright law April 11, 2000
� Akamai content model gives companies pause March 30, 2000
� Hacked video technology provides look at MP3-like films March 27, 2000
� Napster hack allows free distribution of software, movies March 22, 2000