Entry No.121

IT Writers Awards

{\rtf1\mac\ansicpg10000\uc1 \deff0\deflang1033\deflangfe1033{\upr{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset256\fprq2{\*\panose 02020603050405020304}Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset256\fprq2{\*\panose 020b0604020202020204}Arial;}{\f4\fnil\fcharset256\fprq2{\*\panose 02000500000000000000}Times;}{\f20\fnil\fcharset256\fprq2{\*\panose 020b0604030504040204}Verdana;}}{\*\ud{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset256\fprq2{\*\panose 02020603050405020304}Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset256\fprq2{\*\panose 020b0604020202020204}Arial;}{\f4\fnil\fcharset256\fprq2{\*\panose 02000500000000000000}Times;}{\f20\fnil\fcharset256\fprq2{\*\panose 020b0604030504040204}Verdana;}}}}{\colortbl;\red0\green0\blue0;\red0\green0\blue255;\red0\green255\blue255;\red0\green255\blue0;\red255\green0\blue255;\red255\green0\blue0;\red255\green255\blue0;\red255\green255\blue255;\red0\green0\blue128;\red0\green128\blue128;\red0\green128\blue0;\red128\green0\blue128;\red128\green0\blue0;\red128\green128\blue0;\red128\green128\blue128;\red192\green192\blue192;}{\stylesheet{\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \f4\lang3081\cgrid \snext0 Normal;}{\*\cs10 \additive Default Paragraph Font;}}{\info{\title The Digital Underground}{\author Josh Gliddon}{\operator Josh Gliddon}{\creatim\yr2001\mo1\dy22\hr12\min27}{\revtim\yr2001\mo1\dy22\hr12\min27}{\version1}{\edmins0}{\nofpages1}{\nofwords0}{\nofchars0}{\*\company ebulletin}{\nofcharsws0}{\vern8243}}\widowctrl\ftnbj\aenddoc\formshade\horzdoc\dghspace180\dgvspace180\dghorigin1701\dgvorigin1984\dghshow0\dgvshow0\jexpand\viewkind4\viewscale100\pgbrdrhead\pgbrdrfoot\splytwnine\ftnlytwnine\htmautsp\useltbaln\alntblind\lytcalctblwd\lyttblrtgr\lnbrkrule \fet0\sectd \linex0\headery709\footery709\colsx709\endnhere\sectdefaultcl {\*\pnseclvl1\pnucrm\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxta .}}{\*\pnseclvl2\pnucltr\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxta .}}{\*\pnseclvl3\pndec\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxta .}}{\*\pnseclvl4\pnlcltr\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxta )}}{\*\pnseclvl5\pndec\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxtb (}{\pntxta )}}{\*\pnseclvl6\pnlcltr\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxtb (}{\pntxta )}}{\*\pnseclvl7\pnlcrm\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxtb (}{\pntxta )}}{\*\pnseclvl8\pnlcltr\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxtb (}{\pntxta )}}{\*\pnseclvl9\pnlcrm\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxtb (}{\pntxta )}}\pard\plain \sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \f4\lang3081\cgrid {\f20\fs22 The Digital Underground\par Mark Abernethy\par }\pard \sl240\slmult0\nowidctlpar\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\lang1033 The internet took a few blows to its freedoms and financial security this year: Australia censored the net for porn sites; Singapore conducted random tests of hard drives; a court in the United States found against MP3.com\u237\'92s My MP3 music service (compressed music files); and the rock band Metallica successfully had 300,000 downloaders of its music blocked from the contentious Napster system. Then the sell-off of tech stocks began, bringing the internet bubble undone with startling ease.\par }\pard \sl360\slmult0\nowidctlpar\faauto\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\lang1033 But just as the forces of order thought they were getting their hands back on the internet levers, an online network has emerged that promises "a near-perfect anarchy". Irish intellectual Ian Clarke chose May 1 to launch the public version of Freenet, a peer-to-peer network that promises complete privacy from investigators and censors. \par Driven by a desire to free the internet from censorship \u241\'96 but specifically spurred by his outrage over the cyber clampdown laws in Australia \u241\'96 Clarke\u237\'92s riposte to Communications Minister Senator Richard Alston is a clandestine, anonymous network that spans the globe with users who are untraceable to authorities. The concept that was 18 months in the making is a digital marketplace for counterfeiters, dissenters, whistleblowers, heretics and anyone who doesn\u237\'92t want their activities scrutinised by government or corporate agents.\par \u236\'93Freenet is a medium for freely broadcasting information to the world,\u238\'94 says Clarke, who is not worried about Freenet attracting pirates, defamers or even terrorists. \u236\'93Terrorists already have their own means of secret communication and are unlikely to want to tell the world their private plans.\u238\'94\par Clarke has not been approached by government or corporate agencies yet but the power of his underground web has pungent ramifications. The capacity to move illegal MP3s and software around the web without being detected will be enormous. But the parallel ability to disperse leaked, sensitive government and corporate files onto a system where the whistleblower is anonymous is either frightening or liberating, depending on where you view it from.\par Clarke is in no dilemma as to what the issue really is or why the internet makes the issue so clear.\par \u236\'93I don't think censorship should be tolerated in any facet of life but the particular difference with the internet is that generally you must request any information you receive, whereas with, say, television, it is beamed into your home without you requesting it directly,\u238\'94 he told }{\i\lang1033 The Bulletin.\par }{\lang1033 \u236\'93It is one thing to say \u235\'91the government will monitor the information which is being broadcast over public airwaves and which you will receive whether you agree with the content or not\u237\'92, but another to say \u235\'91the government will actively prevent you accessing information which you actually want to access\u237\'92.\u238\'94\par The idea of peer-to-peer networks is not new or illegal. Online savants already know how to find pirated copies of software and MP3s through networks such as Hotline, Napster and Gnutella.\par But the Freenet is different. It has been specifically designed to be completely anonymous and to frustrate attempts to trace information or users. Unlike Napster, it doesn\u237\'92t have a central server or a \u236\'93management \u236\'93 structure. Freenet\u237\'92s very architecture renders useless any attempts to discover where certain information was initiated.\par Freenet is made up purely of the computers that join the network \u241\'96 the network information is held on PC hard drives and is constantly being swapped around. Users download a program that turns their PCs into \u236\'93nodes\u238\'94 of the network and their hard drives into mini-servers. Each node is not only encrypted from outside but is also encrypted from other nodes.\par \u236\'93It is like the needle and the haystack,\u238\'94 says research fellow at the University of NSW's school of engineering, Sebastien Ardon, who was one of Australia\u237\'92s first users of Freenet. Just like the old cells of the French Resistance, each node can only \u236\'93talk\u238\'94 to a handful of other nodes because those are the only nodes it knows of.\par \u236\'93If I make a search for secret government files that someone has posted,\u238\'94 says Ardon, \u236\'93the request goes to the nodes that my computer can speak to. If there is no luck, those nodes ask the nodes it knows of and so on until the information is found. Then it comes back to my PC the same way. I never know where the information came from.\u238\'94\par Freenet has been configured so that the nodes have no Domain Name Server (DNS) or internet Protocol (IP) addresses, which are used by the conventional internet to locate a designated computer in cyberspace. Such IP or DNS data usually creates the digital trails that cyber-detectives can follow, even when the pirates use techniques such as mirror sites and switching servers. Freenet solves that problem by simply not producing such information.\par Clarke has also promised that his monster will make it almost impossible for any information to be removed once it is in the network, meaning the Australian government may have to rethink its internet censorship laws should Freenet peers start swapping or selling pornography. For a start, investigators would not know where to look, since any file is stored simultaneously on many nodes. Secondly, any attempt to remove a file immediately results in the file being copied to another site. Popular material such as MP3 files multiply in response to the demand for it.\par MP3 may be the least of the corporate world\u237\'92s problems. In Sydney, the office of Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) is warning that what started on the internet with software and MP3s is about to flourish into pirated and digitally compressed DVDs and video games.\par The digital pirates are so voracious and so adaptive, says MIPI manager Michael Speck, that the plants they build for their counterfeiting operations are capable of producing CD-ROMs, PlayStation games, music CDs and DVDs from a central piece of burning equipment. Pirated DVDs are about to appear for sale on the internet, says Speck, and there\u237\'92s not a lot that investigators can do about it.\par \u236\'93The pirates today can change production to meet any demand and they have a vast digital distribution system called the internet. The technology behind Freenet is already available \u241\'96 what Freenet does is make it an appliance which can be distributed and used by consumers.\u238\'94\par While Ian Clarke \u241\'96 from an academic background \u241\'96 cages the argument in terms of \u236\'93censorship\u238\'94, Speck and his peers talk about \u236\'93ownership\u238\'94. \par \u236\'93Forget about cyberspace \u241\'96 the internet is the real world,\u238\'94 Speck says. \u236\'93You are two bodies, connected by cables and telephone lines and computers. You need shelter, power, an ISP and a bank account to get MP3s.\par \u236\'93In the real world, if you see something you like you can either buy it or you can steal it. Let\u237\'92s not kid ourselves.\u238\'94\par Speck, whose office is connected with a global network of cyber detectives, says there are 300,000 copyright-infringing music files on the internet at any one time with the capacity to make three million downloads of contraband music in a 24-hour period. This is before something such as Freenet and its anonymity takes hold.\par The network owners are also taking an interest in digital piracy. MP3s are large files (compressed from CDs but still large), and even broadband cable systems have been slowed by the pirate downloads, such is their number and frequency.\par US broadband network operator Cox Communications recently withdrew service from a number of network users \u241\'96 not because they were engaged in potentially illegal activities but because they were slowing the network with their downloads.\par In Australia, the ISP/network giant UUNET runs a rigid acceptable use policy, which means people are denied service for \u236\'93harassment\u238\'94 and \u236\'93inappropriate\u238\'94 material. But UUNET, like most ISP/networks, runs on conventional land lines, which charge users by time rather than size of downloads. It is very hard to detect who is doing what on the networks.\par That\u237\'92s not the case in broadband cable and satellite where usage is metered like gas or water. Optus@Home, a high-speed internet cable provider, has denied service to users who have been using unexplained and unacceptable chunks of the network\u237\'92s capacity.\par The commercial arguments over Freenet are very different to the cyber issues of freedom of expression and association. Chris Nash, associate professor of journalism at University of Technology Sydney, says anonymity is one of the hallmarks of true freedom of speech and people shouldn\u237\'92t be alarmed by networks such as Freenet.\par \u236\'93An idea like the Freenet simply asserts notions of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. It says we should be able to meet and discuss things in anonymity as if on a virtual street corner.\u238\'94\par Rather than being suspicious of Freenet, says Nash, people would do better to question Senator Alston\u237\'92s censorship of the internet or the Singapore government\u237\'92s random search of 300,000 PC hard drives recently.\par The UNSW\u237\'92s Ardon believes the secretive nature of Freenet may not be to the liking of those who do most MP3 downloads \u241\'96 teenage boys. Freenet is adult, academic and political, he says. Freenet is about the World Trade Organisation and Seattle.\par \u236\'93My opinion is that Freenet is a counter-attack to the increasing censoring of internet content.\u238\'94\par Freenet could actually be a return to where the world wide web all started: back to those lefties of academia and their secret conversations.\par }\pard \sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\f20\fs22 \par }}

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