[lug] peer-to-peer

[Gary Hodges]

Michael D. Hirsch wrote:

>On Thursday 19 February 2004 03:57 pm, Gary Hodges wrote:
>  
>
>>I guess this is somewhat off topic, but I've been dying to ask for a
>>while.  Now an article on slashdot has prompted me to post.  Back when
>>P2P was first discussed (or at least when I was first aware) I remember
>>reading many dire warnings from police, copyright people, etc. about how
>>outlaw computer users would soon be able to hide in complete anonymity
>>downloading kiddie porn, software, etc.  It has been ages since I have
>>read articles about anonymous computing/downloading and I'm wondering
>>what happened.  At the time I think it was gnutella that was feared by
>>so many.
>>    
>>
>
>
>You are probably aware of the current lawsuits by the RIAA against file 
>swappers.  They are somewhat stymied right now by not being able to find the 
>users' names from their IP addresses.  So there is a limited amount of 
>anonymity.
>
Sure.  The lawsuits are what originally got me wondering about this.  
Then today I read that MS is sending warning letters to folks who 
downloaded their leaked source over P2P networks.  I was under the 
impression that the RIAA was only held up because they couldn't get the 
user info easily from the ISP's, and are having to resort to lengthier 
legal means.  Isn't it true that in this case the user info is as 
available as always, it's just that it is now more legally difficult for 
the RIAA to obtain?

>If you use Freenet, you are even more anonymous.  It's not as popular right 
>now, but if the RIAA makes headway it may become much more so.
>
Is it truly anonymous or just more anonymous?  I would think the RIAA 
has made more than enough noise for truly anonymous methods to proliferate.

Gary