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comparison doc/www.anonet2.org/public_pod/index.pod @ 163:4c43af1c939e draft

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added a2.o section discussing the anonet advantage
author Nick <nick@somerandomnick.ano>
date Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:09:52 +0000
parents b2dd8107931b
children 92b228e8033a
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162:8ab4ab9888c9 163:4c43af1c939e
100 or you may want to create your own social scene. Again, you're not 100 or you may want to create your own social scene. Again, you're not
101 looking at an "official" reason for joining, but nobody owns AnoNet, so 101 looking at an "official" reason for joining, but nobody owns AnoNet, so
102 "official" is an artificial term 'round here. 102 "official" is an artificial term 'round here.
103 103
104 Finally, you may be getting a bit nervous at the amount of regulation 104 Finally, you may be getting a bit nervous at the amount of regulation
105 piling up around the world against the public Internet. Since the "public" 105 piling up around the world against the public Internet. Since the
106 Internet is owned and managed by a number of multinational corporations, 106 "public" Internet is owned and managed by a number of multinational
107 it's fairly easy for governments to regulate it. Part of the main 107 corporations, it's fairly easy for governments to regulate it. Part of
108 purpose behind AnoNet has always been to get away from those private 108 the main purpose behind AnoNet has always been to get away from those
109 control points, in order to create a truly public internet. In AnoNet1, 109 private control points, in order to create a truly public internet.
110 anybody who can regulate crzydmnd can regulate AnoNet1's "official" 110 In AnoNet1, anybody who can regulate crzydmnd can regulate AnoNet1's
111 wiki (and by extension, its resource "database"), and anybody who can 111 "official" wiki (and by extension, its resource "database"), and
112 regulate Kaos can regulate AnoNet1's "official" client port (and by 112 anybody who can regulate Kaos can regulate AnoNet1's "official" client
113 extension, all new AnoNet1 users), so the private control point problem 113 port (and by extension, all new AnoNet1 users), so the private control
114 hasn't quite been solved there. AnoNet2 is still largely controlled by 114 point problem hasn't quite been solved there. AnoNet2 is still largely
115 UFO and somerandomnick, but we have both technical and administrative 115 controlled by UFO and somerandomnick, but we have both technical and
116 measures in place to ensure that as the network grows, the two of us 116 administrative measures in place to ensure that as the network grows,
117 will no longer have enough control to destroy the network, even if our 117 the two of us will no longer have enough control to destroy the network,
118 own governments ever decide to try regulating us. 118 even if our own governments ever decide to try regulating us.
119
120 =head2 The AnoNet Advantage
121
122 You may be wondering what AnoNet buys you, relative to IcannNet. The answer obviously depends on what you tend to do on IcannNet. Here are some points to note:
123
124 =over
125
126 =item Read Headlines
127
128 If you only read the headlines from your local news (without clicking
129 through to interesting stories, etc.), your anonymity on AnoNet is
130 actually significantly _worse_ than on IcannNet, because you're giving
131 away geolocation information that your IcannNet ISP already knows but
132 that AnoNet probably doesn't.
133
134 =item Read News
135
136 Once you start clicking around for "interesting" stories, you're giving away information that your ISP probably wouldn't already know. However, if you read local news it's probably still wise to avoid AnoNet. (You can still use tor directly.)
137
138 =item Do Research
139
140 AnoNet shines here. Governments can force Google to cough up your search history, but only if Google can figure out which searches you're responsible for. If you use Scroogle (HTTPS) through one of AnoNet's HTTP proxies, the proxy doesn't know what you're looking for, Scroogle has no clue who you are, and by the time the search makes its way to Google, connecting it to you is all but hopeless.
141
142 =item Share Files
143
144 BitTorrent doesn't hide your IP address, so seeding files for L<TPB|http://www.thepiratebay.org/> is not necessarily safe. BitTorrent on AnoNet doesn't hide your IP address either, but the authorities can't easily connect your AnoNet IP address with your IcannNet IP address (in order to get your ISP to reveal your identity).
145
146 =item Speak Out
147
148 If you know something that you'd like other people to know, and you fear retribution from those who would prefer for others not to know what you know, traditional IcannNet forums can be forced to turn over your IP address, which can then identify you. On AnoNet, it's comparatively easy to cover your tracks, in such a way that even your own peers would have a hard time figuring out who said whatever it was.
149
150 =item Blog
151
152 If your blog is easy to connect to your offline identity (say, it
153 has your name and address, and/or dwells primarily on local issues),
154 then moving it to AnoNet obviously won't gain you much anonymity.
155 On the other hand, if it's "just another random blog," AnoNet has the
156 potential to keep it that way. For example, if you like to tell readers
157 about your experience with various products, you always run the risk of
158 having to defend yourself against a lawsuit if a corporate lawyer decides
159 his client would be better served if your critical review went away.
160 Now, since defending yourself in any court of law is never a trivial
161 matter (since the judges in nearly all first-world countries assume
162 that you know all the laws, regulations, relevant case histories,
163 civil procedures, etc. - you know, the stuff you'd normally spend
164 years in law school learning how to make sense of), you may decide
165 that publishing your blog on IcannNet simply isn't worth the risk.
166 On AnoNet, your blog is pretty well-protected against civil liability
167 lawsuits, since before a lawyer can sue you, he first has to find you.
168 (While there are legal mechanisms in place in many countries to allow a
169 lawsuit to get started even when the defendant is unknown, it should be
170 pretty obvious that a court will need to find out who you are before it
171 can meaningfully involve you in a case. If you've done your homework,
172 the cost of finding you will far outweigh the benefit, especially if the
173 plaintiff knows he has no real case against you and was simply hoping to
174 intimidate you.) In addition, the company hosting your IcannNet blog
175 almost certainly allows itself to delete (any part of) your blog in
176 its own sole discretion without even notifying you. That potentially
177 allows a lawyer with an upset client to take a shortcut and bypass you
178 entirely, simply "asking" your blog hosting provider to remove (that part
179 of) your blog. To avoid having to activate its own lawyers, your blog
180 hosting provider may very well decide to pull (that part of) your blog,
181 especially if you're paying little or nothing to host your blog. In fact,
182 if your blog is on its own domain, there's yet another canidate for the
183 weakest link, in that anybody who wants your blog gone can simply appeal
184 to your domain's registrar. (Recall the WikiLeaks case, for example.)
185 On AnoNet, you can easily host your own blog, forcing attacks against
186 your hosting arrangements to go through you (or at least through _all_
187 of your peers). Your domain is even harder to attack, since wiping your
188 domain off of a single resdb repository would only prevent one AnoNet
189 user from seeing it (and a simple git rollback would fix the situation
190 even for that individual user). Moreover, the deletion would quickly
191 propagate throughout AnoNet, potentially raising alarms everywhere.
192 (Even if only a single user notices the attack and re-adds your domain,
193 his own re-addition will quickly propagate throughout AnoNet, restoring
194 access to your domain for everybody.)
195
196 =item Publish
197
198 If you thought publishing blogs was tricky, try publishing a book. ("Alms for Jihad" comes to mind as one obvious example, where the publisher went so far as to delete the book from its own database and buried the copyright.) While physical books may not be so simple to publish on AnoNet (although you can certainly raise awareness of them by speaking out about them on AnoNet), e-books enjoy considerable anti-censorship advantages on AnoNet.
199
200 =item Teach
201
202 You may want to teach disciplines that can get you into friction with "the authorities" in a tyrannical regime. (Judges in prominent first-world countries have ruled, for example, that knowing your way around a computer is an indication that you may be involved in computer-related crimes.) AnoNet gives you an opportunity to teach without your students being able to point you out to the authorities, even under pain of torture.
203
204 =item Report
205
206 You may find yourself in the middle of a news story, but other parts of that news story may not appreciate your reports. When you report something to WikiLeaks without going through tor, you're leaving a long trail that may lead to you. With AnoNet, you can hide that trail to a certain extent, if you don't want to use tor. (WikiLeaks over tor will still give you better protection than AnoNet, if you're worried about your government's intelligence agencies getting involved. AnoNet's optimization towards pseudonymity with common IcannNet protocols is the weakness, here. We're working on that, but in the meantime you have L<tor|http://www.torproject.org/>, L<i2p|http://www.i2p2.de/>, L<Freenet|http://freenetproject.org/>, L<GNUnet|http://gnunet.org/>, and others.)
207
208 =back
119 209
120 =head2 Why Not to Join 210 =head2 Why Not to Join
121 211
122 If you're looking for a ready-made community, where you just show up and 212 If you're looking for a ready-made community, where you just show up and
123 "browse," AnoNet (either 1 or 2) is probably not quite what you're after. 213 "browse," AnoNet (either 1 or 2) is probably not quite what you're after.