CNET News.com: Free, anonymous information on the anarchists’ Net

“Clarke and a growing group of allied programmers are
creating a kind of parallel Internet called “Freenet,” where
censorship is impossible, surfers are anonymous, and content is
moved and hosted automatically to points near the people who want
it….“

“The system is built around the efforts of volunteers, who set
up Freenet network “nodes,” or connection points, on their own
computers to store content. Once a song, document, video or
anything else is uploaded into this system, it is distributed
around participating computers, automatically stored in nodes near
the users who ask for the content, and removed from machines where
there is no interest.”

“The system is designed to be almost entirely anonymous. The
actual content on any given host computer changes over time, and
will ultimately be encrypted, so no host will know what is on his
or her machine. The keywords used to search the network for files
are also scrambled, making it extremely difficult for authorities
to find out who is hosting what, or who is looking for what
particular piece of information….”

“While it’s impossible to tell how many people are using the
system at any given time, about 20,000 people have downloaded an
early version of it in the last few weeks….”

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