Freenet 0.7

Freenet is a Peer-to-Peer network with main focus on security and anonymity (for both authours and consumers of information). It is based on a paper(pdf) by Ian Clarke. In 2005 Freenet was completely rewritten because of a new design concept that was to be implemented - the Darknet. This new version of Freenet, namely version 0.7, is not compatible to any older versions. This article deals with Freenet 0.7 exclusively.

What is Freenet ?

Philosphy

Freenet has the freedom of informationexchange as it's primary goal. Legal and moral concerns that are connected with free and untraceable exchange of data, like sharing of illegal music- or videofiles, or even contents contemptuous of the human rights, are secondary to that goal. Ian Clarke argues, that they are in fact mutually exclusive :

You cannot guarantee freedom of speech and enforce copyright law. It is for this reason that Freenet, a system designed to protect Freedom of Speech, must prevent enforcement of copyright.

- Ian Clarke, On Freenet Philosphy

Matthew Toseland, the main developer of Freenet, also states that :

- Matthew Toseland Discussion on the possibility of censorship in Freenet, Freenet mailing mist archives

Goals

The main goal of Freenet (0.7) is to provide a way to safely exchange information in a "hostile environment", such as an oppressive dictatorship. This implies the following subgoals.

References

• I. Clarke, O. Sandberg, B. Wiley and T.W. Hong, "Freenet: A Distributed Anonymous Information Storage and Retrieval System", Workshop on Design Issues in Anonymity and Unobservability, 2000 [1](pdf)