From: David Honig (honig@sprynet.com)
Date: Thu Mar 02 2000 - 07:06:10 PST
At 12:45 AM 3/2/00 -0800, Bill Stewart wrote:
>It would be very nice if there were a Freenet _client_
>instead of, or in addition to, the Freenet _server_.
>What's the functional difference? None, actually :-)
>The problem is that many US cable modem networks,
>and some US xDSL networks, have strong policies
>against running network servers, but not network clients.
>So if Freenet is a server, I can't run it on my cable modem,
>but if it's just a client with maybe some peer-to-peer capabilities,
>that's just fine :-) Unfortunately, it would have more credibility
>if there were some server to talk to in addition to other clients,
>perhaps analagous to ICQ registry server, but that's probably not
>very compatible with the rest of the system.
>
>The transparency and stupidity of the request has nothing to do
>with its importance. :-)
How many servers can dance on the head of a pin?
How many cable modem operators are pin heads?
What is the definition of 'server' in these contracts?
In the law?
Aren't all computers just latent UDP/ICMP 'servers'
just waiting for the right system call?
(in that they sit and wait for (albeit connectionless) data rather than
initiating transactions). Is a mailing list exploder a server? What if I
do it manually?
Restricting the use of the media should not be legal if the supplier has a
government-granted monopoly (as cable ISPs do, and DSL will if the CO isn't
opened). It also weakens the common-carrier exemption from responsibility
about content. If the telco says you can't talk business or birth-control
over your home line, they become editors with responsibility. That's
why they don't.
The monopoly ISPs *must* contract for bandwidth, not content.
Competitive ISPs should be able to be fully arbitrary, like
all free entities.
But if the government-backed ISP are being jerks, Freenet must be a
"listener", not a server. Server is perjorative and implies obligatory
slavery; listener implies more discretion.
Duckspeak is doubleplus good when playing with idiots.
Better to act and ask forgiveness then to ask permission first...
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Mar 02 2000 - 07:11:37 PST