Anonymous Filesharing with Antsp2p

WORKER ANT

Article from Issue 67/2006
Author(s):

Filesharing is a favorite leisure activity for many Internet users. But conventional filesharing tools have one major drawback – they aren’t anonymous. The Antsp2p project aims to change this.

Most popular filesharing tools reveal their users’ IP addresses. This means that if you participate in a conventional file-sharing network, others may be able to discover who you are and where you live. This problem has gained new urgency in the wake of recent litigation from the music and movie industries, but for Internet users in some parts of the world, the worry over a lawsuit is minor compared to the very real fear of criminal prosecution. Certain repressive countries keep tight control over the use of the Internet, and anyone who is operating beyond the government censors is at risk of arrest. These tensions within the filesharing community have given rise to a new phenomenon – the anonymous point-to- point (P2P) network. Anonymous filesharing is an important trend in the evolution of the Internet. The Java-based Antsp2p [1] anonymous filesharing client shows how far these anonymity projects have come towards reaching their goals. “Privacy is a fundamental right all over the world and it must be protected,” Antsp2p chief developer Gwren said in a recent interview [2]. How does
this promising tool protect the user’s privacy? And what does filesharing have to do with ants? Read on for a closer look at filesharing with Antsp2p.

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