GAIM-Integrated Filesharing
Jail for filesharers is ridiculous. We need to stop it.
The lawsuits aren’t enough. The major record labels are literally trying to send people to prison for sharing music, and a new bill in Congress right now would let them. We can’t let that happen– it is a completely, utterly, unacceptable political tactic. We’ve written a detailed write-up for a simple, new approach to filesharing that could make the major labels’ tactics useless. It would let you search, browse, and share files with your friends in your IM program. It would be simple, natural, and completely secure from outside snooping.
The Future of Filesharing
And secure, private filesharing isn’t just important for keeping kids out of jail, it’s also key to the future of filesharing. The most exciting uses of peer-to-peer technology are still in many ways on the horizon. Content created by individuals, shared by individuals will finally have it’s day when the distribution network is perfected. But filesharing, which is the key to making this possible, is being intentionally tainted by the RIAA. Blocking their efforts to destroy the technology is key to taking it to the next level.
Share with friends of friends
Your friends aren’t the RIAA. Their friends aren’t the RIAA. But just sharing in this small circle you’re sharing with hundreds of people. With this software there would be no need to worry about security, so everyone could share their entire library.
Downloads are direct, fast
Anonymous networks like MUTE or Freenet work by passing files around from user to user. The problem is, this gets really slow. But when you’re sharing with people you trust, all downloads can happen directly.
Invite friends right from your buddy list
If trusted filesharing isn’t integrated with IM, it’s just not going to work. Who wants to have to manually exchange IP addresses or encryption keys? Our plan builds trusted filesharing into the ad-free chat client GAIM. That way– whether you use AIM, MSN, Yahoo, or Jabber–when you start up the first time, all your buddies are right there, and you can invite them into the network.
Secure filesharing for everyone
Making a program that only geeks can use won’t cut it. The goal, after all, is to keep people out of jail. What’s great about integrating filesharing into an IM client is that the interface will be familiar and non-threatening to everyone. And the interface itself explains the security advantages of the program in simple terms: you share with friends.
Details of the Proposed Software
We propose an extension to the GAIM chat client that lets users do gnutella-style search & download filesharing, where search requests propagate out to trusted buddies, buddies of buddies, etc. This approach has serveral advantages. First, people will be more altruistic sharing with friends and won’t be as worried about RIAA/MPAA lawsuits. At the same time, because they can share with friends-of-friends, and friends-of-friends-of-friends, they’ll often be searching a very huge library. This software will be just as simple as an IM client, and it will be easy for people to invite friends (so it spreads virally). No other piece of filesharing software is this well positioned to become hugely popular with the average, not-so-knowledgeable, Windows user. As a bonus, it will convert many users to using the open-source and ad-free client GAIM–a good thing in itself. The immediate goal is creating a working version that is extremely simple but very modular and easy to modify or expand upon.
What’s so great about IM-integrated, trusted p2p
Trusted p2p is a relatively new thing. Up until now, filesharing has happened on massive open networks, on small darknets where everyone shares with everyone, or on slow, freenet-style networks where files themselves must pass through several users. Trusted p2p is different from all of these: you only share with your friends and friends of your friends, and downloads happen directly between the person who has the file and the person who wants it (so it’s fast). This way you share with large, overlapping webs of people, all of whom you have a reason to trust. IM integration is the key to making all the friend-management easy for the user, and to making sure the software gets popular.
Related Posts
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- JETIANTSp2p for anonymopus filesharing BETA 041 RL 5.0
- Trustyfiles Filesharing 2.0.0.2.
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