The dark ages Capitalism + fascism = socialism? BY JESS KILBY

The Internet ain’t what it used to be. Birthed in the 1960s by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Department of Defense, the world’s first known wide-area computer network consisted of two machines — one in Massachusetts and one in California — that communicated via a telephone line. By 1972 we had email; by 1983, we had TCP/IP, the foundation of the domain-naming system for Web addresses.

But it wasn’t until the early 1990s that the World Wide Web was formally established, and not until the late ’90s that the average person got online. In that short span of time, however, public participation has wrought enormous changes on the Internet. And like any evolutionary animal, the Net is poised to morph — again.

When we talk about the Internet these days, of course, we mean the people who use the network as much as we mean the collective machines themselves. This is an important distinction. During the early growth of the Internet, evolution was typically a response to a technological need — information wasn’t being transferred in the most efficient manner; protocols between different machines weren’t compatible, etc. But much innovation of late has been in response to particularly human needs: spam filters, pop-up blockers, encrypted-email services, anonymous file-sharing utilities. So much effort is being expended to avoid the glut of unwanted commercialism and the all-seeing eye of Big Brother, it seems perfectly natural that the next step for some people is to get out of the game completely. Enter the darknet.

Or perhaps I should say the darknets, because there is no single darknet, in the same way there was no single speakeasy during those dry days of Prohibition. A darknet is simply a private, invite-only network, often protected by encryption, that uses the infrastructure of the Internet to transmit information but is invisible (or at least obscured) from prying eyes.

The term darknet was coined in 2002 by a team of Microsoft engineers working on one of Redmond’s pet projects, Digital Rights Management. In a paper presented at a DRM conference that year, they wrote: "The darknet is not a separate physical network but an application and protocol layer riding on existing networks. Examples of darknets are peer-to-peer file sharing, CD and DVD copying, and key or password sharing on email and newsgroups. The last few years have seen vast increases in the darknet’s aggregate bandwidth, reliability, usability, size of shared library, and availability of search engines." They conclude that "ultimately the darknet-genie will not be put back into the bottle."

Microsoft’s portrayal of darknets as something murky and dangerous — even down to the artfully chosen name — has the mainstream media swooning like a bunch of science-fiction hacks. In the July 29 issue of London’s Financial Times, business-tech writer Richard Waters declared: "Here is a prediction: The darknet will never die. Adversaries will send out their digital agents to hunt down its disciples. But the darknet will go further underground, finding new ways to escape the reach of these electronic attackers. The faithful will find safety by banding together in small groups, beyond the reach of the oppressors."

This noir image of darknets is exactly what Microsoft wants, but it hardly tells the whole story of the technology. Sure, it’s being used by file traders, though in such limited circles that even the RIAA and its ilk are unfazed. (Says Randy Saaf, president of copyright-protection company MediaDefender, in a September 15 BusinessWeek article: "If they are using private networks, there is very little risk of being caught, but there is very little risk of them really doing much harm to the entertainment companies.")

However, there are several other populations making use of darknets who Microsoft conveniently fails to mention: political dissidents in repressed countries; civil libertarians in the US; and businesses looking to protect sensitive projects and trade secrets. Ironically, members of the latter two groups have found that the vulnerability and transparency of their online existence is largely Microsoft’s fault, through its notoriously flawed code and its increasingly authoritarian software projects.

Of particular concern to privacy advocates is Longhorn, the upcoming version of Windows due out in 2006. While the operating system is ostensibly a leap forward in the worlds of both security and privacy, watchdog groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation fear that secondary vendors who take advantage of Longhorn’s new security protocols to make their own products (CDs, DVDs, software) Longhorn-compatible will not have the same altruistic, user-friendly motives Microsoft touts.

So what of these darknets, then? How does one get involved?

Well, the first step is to research the various darknet software programs out there, one of which you’ll need to become part of an established network or to create a network of your own. Read the "About" or "FAQ" page on the program’s Web site; different clients offer varying levels of anonymity, and may require that you "donate" or share disk space or bandwidth to participate. (If you have a problem with this concept, you probably shouldn’t be participating in the first place.) Additionally, while most darknet clients are free, some make you pay to play.

Some well-known darknet clients:

Freenet (freenet.sourceforge.net): An established network. Founder Ian Clarke is a free-speech absolutist, and Freenet has a decidedly political bent to its operating philosophy.

BadBlue (badblue.com): Create your own network. Free for personal and nonprofit use, fee for corporate use.

Groove Workspace (groove.net): Create your own network. Fees from $69 to $199, depending on edition purchased.

WINW (winw.org): Create your own network. Free.

Invisiblenet (invisiblenet.net): Secure, anonymous IRC (chat) space. Free.

Don’t be intimidated by the jargon on these sites; if you’re patient and you play nice you’ll find friends to help you out. Welcome to the new Dark Age.

Jess Kilby can be reached at jesskilby@yahoo.com