more on Open-source pro-privacy freebies

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2003 18:15:13 +1300
From: Hugh Lilly <h.lilly () gmx net>
Subject: Fwd: [nzlug] Open-source pro-privacy freebies
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>, Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>

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Declan, Dave:

More on [Politech] New Zealand activist's crime of sending political email?
[fs]; posted to the NZLUG recently.

- -hdl
- ----------  Forwarded Message:  ----------
Subject: [nzlug] Open-source pro-privacy freebies
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2003 17:32
From: David McNab <david () rebirthing co nz>
To: nzlug () linux net nz

Hi all,

If you're happy to have government webcams in your car and in every room
of your house, then stop reading this post now and delete it. Take your
blue pill with a nice warm glass of milk, and forget you ever saw this.

Everyone else, please read on...

As most of you know, an Aucklander is facing criminal charges for
sending an email message to the US consulate, in which he criticises US
foreign policy. What makes this letter unique is that the author makes
no threats, and breaks no laws, save for an obscure provision in one of
NZ's new 'terrist under every bed' laws.

Most of you will already be familiar with Freenet - a prototype
peer2peer network infrastructure that allows for anonymous, encrypted
online communication. Freenet was the original spearhead of technologies
which allow people to publish and/or retrieve information anonymously,
and which makes it next to impossible for third parties to ascertain the
source or destination of traffic.

Freenet uses 'whack-a-mole' routing and caching, with the result that
any attempt to censor information, or determine the publisher or
retriever of information, actually causes the information to proliferate
through the network - creating a 'Heisenberg' effect. The unique nature
of the routing/caching also provides viable 'plausible deniability'
defense for people whose nodes are used as intermediate caches.

Freenet is in widespread use amongst pro-democracy campaigners within
China, and other repressive regimes.

But if you've actually tried Freenet, you'll be sorely aware that in its
present alpha state, it's a slow, bloated CPU/memory hog with
reliability that's only patchy at best.

But the miracle of the Internet is that a problem doesn't persist long
before solutions start to manifest, as if from nowhere.

In answer to freenet's practical problems, a whole new suite of software
called Entropy has been developed. http://entropy.stop1984.com

Entropy is 100% freenet compatible (from the point of view of the
protocol - FCP - which you use to talk to it from client programs).
It's also compatible in the sense that it has a built-in HTTP gateway,
so you can surf 'freesites' with your web browser, just like with
freenet. But as another plus, Entropy's web interface also has built-in
web message boards.

But what makes Entropy *really* different is that it's written in ANSI C
(as opposed to Freenet being in Java).

[I'm sure I don't need to explain what happens to a program when it
throws off that cast-lead albatross called Java.]

Entropy's value is that it puts the Freenet ideas into practice, in a
piece of software that actually works, and works fast and reliable,
without undue demand on resources.

I for one am very committed to online privacy, because of the abuses
which are starting to happen - for example, that Aucklander mentioned
above.

I recommend that if you've got even the slightest aversion to George
Orwell's 1984 scenario, that you download and install the Entropy
software, and get a node up and running. If you like, you can also post
your noderef into as a reply to this thread (you're welcome to use my
own noderef - freenet.org.nz:30531).

More and more people every day are writing client software for Entropy.
For instance, I've not long ago written a POP/SMTP MTA (mail server)
called 'FreeMail' that uses Entropy as its transport - and unlike
conventional PGP/SMTP solutions, it disguises even the fact that you're
sending or receiving messages at all. Alpha testing has been happening
for a month, in which FreeMail has stabilised to near-beta quality.
www.freenet.org.nz/freemail

Writing client software for Freenet or Entropy is easy - there are
easy-to-use SDK libraries already implemented in C, Python, Perl and
(ulp!) Java.

If Entropy follows its present path, it can be expected to grow into a
huge international 'nether-net', and the rightful successor to Freenet.

So if any of you are wondering what the hell has happened to me, this is
what I've been doing - writing lotsa Python software - with a focus on
privacy-related stuff.

Oh, before I go, I thought I should also mention another excellent piece
of privacy software.

IIP - Invisible IRC Proxy (http://www.invisiblenet.net/iip), is a
peer2peer gateway that allows you to use your favourite IRC client to
enjoy strong-encrypted, anonymous online chat. Any attempts to discover
the IP addresses of others using IIP will just return the ubiquitous
'127.0.0.1'. With IIP, you can set up your own chat rooms, or join
existing chat rooms, or talk 1:1 with privmsg, and speak with a freedom
that will withstand virtually any attack (save for the government here
TEMPESTing you or planting a keylogger in your box).

So - now might be a really good time to put your feelings about privacy
into practice, and get your Entropy and IIP nodes running. Just compile
them, stick 'em in your inits, and use at will.

- --
Cheers
David

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- --
                          (C) 2003 Hugh Lilly
                         mail: h.lilly () gmx net
                    blog: http://hugh.orcon.net.nz
   Registered Linux User # 295486, register @ http://counter.li.org
        ______________________________________________________
        There's only so much stupidity you can compensate for;
        there comes a point where you compensate for so much
          stupidity that it starts to cause problems for the
              people who actually think in a normal way.
                -Bill, digital.forest tech support
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