BitTorrent Based DNS To Counter US Domain Seizures

[nsane.forums]

The domain seizures by the United States authorities in recent days and upcoming legislation that could make similar takeovers even easier in the future, have inspired a group of enthusiasts to come up with a new, decentralized and BitTorrent-powered DNS system. This system will exchange DNS information through peer-to-peer transfers and will work with a new .p2p domain extension.In a direct response to the domain seizures by US authorities during the last few days, a group of established enthusiasts have started working on a DNS system that can’t be touched by any governmental institution.

Ironically, considering the seizure of the Torrent-Finder meta-search engine domain, the new DNS system will be partly powered by BitTorrent.

In recent months, global anti-piracy efforts have increasingly focused on seizing domains of allegedly infringing sites. In the United States the proposed COICA bill is explicitly aimed at increasing the government’s censorship powers, but seizing a domain name is already quite easy, as illustrated by ICE and Department of Justice actions last weekend and earlier this year.

For governments it is apparently quite easy to take over the DNS entries of domains, not least because several top level domains are managed by US-based corporations such as VeriSign, who work closely together with the US Department of Commerce. According to some, this setup is a threat to the open internet.

To limit the power governments have over domain names, a group of enthusiasts has started working on a revolutionary system that can not be influenced by a government institution, or taken down by pulling the plug on a central server. Instead, it is distributed by the people, with help from a BitTorrent-based application that people install on their computer.

According to the project’s website, the goal is to “create an application that runs as a service and hooks into the hosts DNS system to catch all requests to the .p2p TLD while passing all other request cleanly through. Requests for the .p2p TLD will be redirected to a locally hosted DNS database.”

“By creating a .p2p TLD that is totally decentralized and that does not rely on ICANN or any ISP’s DNS service, and by having this application mimic force-encrypted BitTorrent traffic, there will be a way to start combating DNS level based censoring like the new US proposals as well as those systems in use in countries around the world including China and Iran amongst others.”

The Dot-P2P project was literally started a few days ago, but already the developers are making great progress. It is expected that a beta version of the client can be released relatively shortly, a team member assured TorrentFreak.

The project has been embraced by many familiar names in the P2P-community. Former Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde is among them, and the people from EZTV have been promoting it as well.

“For me it’s mostly to scare back. To show that if they try anything, we have weapons of making it harder for them to abuse it. If they then back down, we win,” Peter Sunde told TorrentFreak in a comment.

Although the initiators of the project are still debating on various technical issues on how the system should function, it seems that the administrative part has been thought out. The .p2p domain registration will be handled by OpenNIC (requires OpenNic DNS), an alternative community based DNS network. OpenNIC also maintains the .geek, .free, .null and several other top level domains.

On the other hand, there are also voices that are for distributed domain registration, which would keep the system entirely decentralized.

The domain registrations will be totally free, but registrants will have to show that they own a similar domain with a different extension first, to prevent scammers from taking over a brand.

The new P2P-based DNS system will require users to run an application on their own computer before they can access the domains, but there are also plans to create a separate root-server (like OpenNIC) as a complimentary service. It’s worth noting that the DNS changes will only affect the new .p2p domains, it will not interfere with access to any other domains.

It will be interesting to see in what direction this project goes and how widely it will be adopted. There are already talks of getting Internet Service Providers to accept the .p2p extension as well, but even if this doesn’t happen the system can always be accessed through the BitTorrent-powered application and supporting DNS servers.

If anything, this shows that no matter what legislation or legal actions are taken, technology stays always one step ahead. The more aggressive law enforcement gets, the more creative and motivated adopters of the Open Internet will respond.

Article from: TorrentFreak.

View: Original Article

[topcat4946]

Cool idea should be something that definitely happens. :ph34r:

[RadioActive]

Very interesting idea, it's funny that the harder they try to stop file-sharing the more innovation that comes out of it :lol:

[nsane.forums]

Peter Sunde says he's grown "tired" of ICANN seizing domain names without a full and fair trial, and so wants to "add a new competing root-server" that uses P2P so that govts and private companies can no longer control it. Finds it "unacceptable" that there exists a centralized system that controls the flow of information.

Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde is looking to put the DNS system beyond the control of ICANN by creating a "new competing root-server" that will use P2P instead.

"Hello all #isp of the world," he twitters. "We're going to add a new competing root-server since we're tired of #ICANN. Please contact me to help."

Sunde says that the first step is an alternative DNS root, and that step two is the new DNS system that is "in the making."

"It's not advanced, it's p2p and more secure," he adds.

The problem with ICANN, he argues, is not ICANN itself, but rather that govt's and companies can control it.

"The background for this project is that we want the internet to be uncensored!" he says on P2P DNS, the new site he created to discuss the project. "Having a centralised system that controls our information flow is not acceptable."

"By using existing technology for de-centralisation together with already having a crew with skilled programmers, communicators and network specialists, an alternative system is not far away. We're not going to re-invent the wheel, we're going to build on existing technology as much as possible," he adds.

Why the impetus all of a sudden? Sunde says that part of the problem is that ICANN simply seizes domain names without the benefit of a full and fair trial. In fact, ICANN previously gave away one of his domain names to the IFPI using the recommendations of a panel to which the IFPI was the only member.

It's also become a more crucial issue now that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, has seized more than 91 domain names so far as part of "Operation In Our Sites." Many of the sites are neither located in the US nor have yet to see the inside of a courtroom, and yet have had their domain names seized per a US warrant. Imagine if Iran or China had the ability to serve warrants on top-level domains like Twitter or Facebook!

If you wish to discuss Sunde's P2P DND proposal in IRC you can go here: irc://irc.efnet.nl:6667/dns-p2p

View: Original Article