"safe" P2p


Tobriand

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Ok, P2P might be a delicate subject. Its more often than not used for warez. Its also used for perfectly legit things. However, from the hypothetical point of view of someone who uses it for the former, I think I've come up with an answer.

It would require everyone on the network to have a LOT of storage. Into the TB range, I think, if it ever caught on. But it would preserve all receivers' safety, no matter what they were getting.

Basically, imagine a program that acts like bittorrent - but rather than being a network for a set of specified files that you know about, its blind. Its also malleable. By which I mean that any person using the same network can dump a file into the directory they're receiving to and that file will be send randomly to others. But they won't be able to tell what file it is until they have the entire thing - despite being able to send what they've got of it.

The result, essentially, is you create a perpetually changing cache of files that no-one's got a clue what are and that everyone will eventually end up with. Hence the need for a *huuuuge* ammount of storage.

This is, of course, impossible with current storage - let alone bandwidth (given that a network could contain anything whatsoever, can you imagine how long it'd take to download one thing you wanted) let alone the fact that it would have to be (I think) impossible to stop a file sending if it were in the directory - so if you got something you didn't want on your hdd and deleted it, you could very easily end up getting it again sometime (but if you didn't then lots of other people will eventually get it and you'll have a greater chance of getting it again - big dillemma).

There's a lot of problems with it. But I think it would probably be safe. It would also be extremely useful, from a more legal pov, for exchanging schoolwork and such - a class could easily just add their essay to the directory when they'd written it having set up a file with their teacher, who could then connect in and get the lot - though for that purpose *not* knowing what file you're getting beforehand would not, I think, be useful. For that specific example, though, this would probably be pretty effective to use even today, since you know only small files will be on the network.

Anyone got any other ideas for hypothetical networks that might or might not work that they've come up with, out of interest? The whole thing is an interesting issue, not least because there is a question as to whether it even *should* be solved. Thoughts?



Mods: I'm fairly sure this isn't going against any regulations, but if I'm touching on the edge here, by all means kill the thread - I've no wish to raise any hackles, just get some opinions on an interesting topic and idea.
 
mattmagoo posted on Aug 16 2004 at 06:40 PM said:
what if sum1 puts porn on and then a load of 8 year olds d/load it
Why that would be different to current P2P, wouldn't it? :p

Seriously, I know a 10 year old who likes tentacle hentai. When I was 10 I wasn't even interested in girls, except for shoving into the mud occasionally.
 
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Mosch posted on Aug 16 2004 at 07:56 PM said:
mattmagoo posted on Aug 16 2004 at 06:40 PM said:
what if sum1 puts porn on and then a load of 8 year olds d/load it
Why that would be different to current P2P, wouldn't it? :p

Seriously, I know a 10 year old who likes tentacle hentai. When I was 10 I wasn't even interested in girls, except for shoving into the mud occasionally.
Ive been into girls since I was 8 or so :s
 
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Rico already said it, but yeah, you pretty much explained freenet. It is pretty shitty to use.
 
diablo2 posted on Aug 17 2004 at 02:37 AM said:
i read that but i still don't get it
can someone give a quick summery of tobriand's idea
Basically, you activate the program and it starts downloading files, possibly depending on popularity, without your consent. As soon as someone enters a file into the network, it is distributed among the other users.
 
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spongebue posted on Aug 17 2004 at 03:31 AM said:
FolderShare does the job, too. basically you invite other members that you know to access your folder, and you can give them various access of control. It seems fairly fast, too.
Yay, let's just randomly link a p2p service that is neither safe nor anything like what Tobriand is describing. With FolderShare it's for small groups, you control exactly what is shared, you know what's on your computer, it's not anonymous or even tries to be, and oh, one more thing, every single filename you have on your shares is logged by the FolderShare server.
 
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How would downloading what you don't want increase the chances of getting what you want. The only benefit is the anonymity, but it doesn't actually benefit the P2P community, as you have no control over what you receive. Even assuming people had the storage, nobody would be willing to use a service where there is a 1 in a million chance of downloading what they want.
 
LHC posted on Aug 17 2004 at 03:09 PM said:
How would downloading what you don't want increase the chances of getting what you want. The only benefit is the anonymity, but it doesn't actually benefit the P2P community, as you have no control over what you receive. Even assuming people had the storage, nobody would be willing to use a service where there is a 1 in a million chance of downloading what they want.
Tobriand was desbribing a far fetched time in which memory and bandwith speeds have increased dramatically.

In that way, everybody using the system would have all the files on the system (eventually- thus the need for huge storage and bandwith) and therefore would be able to find exactly what they wanted. Unfortunately they would also have alot they really really didnt want.

Its like downloading the entire internet so that you have everything ever written/ hosted on the net on a HD and even if sites are taken offline, you would still have them stored.
 
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mattmagoo posted on Aug 16 2004 at 06:40 PM said:
too easy to fuck up

what if sum1 puts porn on and then a load of 8 year olds d/load it
So,......... what if a 8 year old search's Google for it?????????????? :p
 
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Wolfsclaw posted on Aug 17 2004 at 07:12 PM said:
p2p sucks! i get my files with 120kb/s ;)
Meh, my connection is so fast files are downloaded before I even want them.
 
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