Is using Freenet a sin?

[kevstar31]

Freenet is a p2p program that allows you to avoid censorship by using encrypted connections between nodes. When someone else requests a file through your node a copy is stored and encrypted on you computer allowing information to stay on Freenet even if the computer that put up the page is disconnected. But there is also an option to only connect to nodes you trust giving you a little bit more control over what information your computer takes in.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freenet

 

[Dale_M]

Quoting from the Wikipedia article:

One analysis of Freenet files conducted in the year 2000 claimed that the top 3 types of files contained in Freenet were text (37 %), audio (21 %), and images (14 %). 59 % of all the text files were drug-related, 71 % of all audio files were rock music, and 89 % of all images were pornographic. The article attempts to qualify itself with the proviso: “the design of Freenet makes accurate analysis of its content difficult”[4] Due to the nature of Freenet, a typical user may unknowingly host this sort of information, which may hypothetically make them subject to severe civil and criminal penalties.

The nature of this system would seem attractive to persons engaged in illegal activity. I would worry very much about the files stored, unknown to you, on your computer. We don’t want to read about you in the next child-porn investigation.

 

[CatholicNerd]

I’d stay well away from it. Some exit nodes of onion routing networks like freenet are monitored by unscrupulous people who lie in wait for their node to decrypt potentially sensitive information. Or they’ll quietly send your computer nasty bits that could end up pilfering private data that way… it’s not worth the risk for that reason alone.

In addition, the only conceivable reason I can see for using such a system in a western democracy with guaranteed freedom of speech and exchange of information is to try to hide something or circumvent the (admittedly ridiculous) DRM restrictions the record and motion picture industries are trying to force on us. The penalties for ticking off the RIAA and MPAA are severe.

The legal systems of the United States and most of Western Europe do not look favorably on people who have been swept up in child pornography stings without ever knowing that such abominations were sitting on their hard drive. Uneducated judges and juries find it difficult to believe that people do not realize that they are harboring that material on their hard drives.

If you want a highly effective way to transmit and disseminate large chunks of data safely, try using bittorrent. And be thankful that we don’t live in China, where the use of this system could be both morally licit and necessary.

 

[kentuckyliz]

If you are violating someone else’s copyright, yes, you are, it’s theft.

New technology, same old problem.

I remember copying albums to cassette. Then cassette to cassette. Then CD to cassette. Or sharing CDs back and forth so we could copy them on to our computers or iTunes. Much less Napster.

If you own the copyright to something and you want to share it, just put it out there, freenet or not.

Remember from kindergarten: if you share someone else’s stuff against their will, it isn’t sharing! It’s stealing.