SCN: Distributed systems

[Steve]

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Maverick Programmers Prepare To Unleash Anarchy on the Web

by Tom Weber
Wall Street Journal


If you think the Internet is an untamed frontier now, just wait. A new 
technology sweeping through cyberspace promises to unleash an 
entirely new wave of anarchy onto the Web, making it impossible for 
anyone to protect intellectual property online or shut down a rogue 
Web service.   

The early warning came March 14 from a tiny computer program 
called Gnutella. Created by renegade programmers at a unit of 
America Online, Gnutella lets people share computer files -- mainly 
music -- over the Net. AOL yanked the Gnutella Web site within a 
day, but it was too late. Gnutella is humming with hundreds of 
people swapping Pink Floyd cuts, and no one can stop them.   

The technology that makes Gnutella thrive is popping up all over the 
Net, and it goes way beyond just music. Known as a "distributed" or 
"peer-to-peer" approach, it's pretty much the opposite of the way the 
World Wide Web works. On the Web, people get information from 
central repositories, or servers. Shutting down a server cripples a 
Web site, as demonstrated in last month's hacker attacks.   

On a distributed system there is no central brain to attack. So 
there's almost no way to turn it off short of finding and unplugging 
every single machine connected to it. Shutting down one of these 
networks would be like trying to stop every phone conversation on 
the planet.   

"This will make censorship impossible," says Ian Clarke, a young 
programmer in London with grand plans for peer-to-peer technology. 
For the past 18 months, he and a handful of collaborators have 
spent their spare time creating a peer-to-peer alternative to the Web. 
They call their system FreeNet, and they're getting ready to unleash 
their prototype in a matter of days.   

FreeNet abandons the concept of the Web "site." Anyone would be 
able to make their computer a node on FreeNet by installing a piece 
of software. Information posted on FreeNet would be automatically 
replicated and stored on multiple member nodes. If someone wanted 
to search for something -- an academic paper, say, or a photograph --
 the request would move from one computer to the next until it 
encountered and accessed the desired information. The approach 
would foil tracking efforts and make it nearly impossible for 
someone to remove information from the network.   

Mr. Clarke thinks those capabilities add up to a bold new age for the 
Internet. He envisions FreeNet as a way for political dissidents to 
publish their views without fear of being found out. Read his fiery 
manifesto at http://freenet.sourceforge.net. But he admits there's a 
dark side, too. If FreeNet works as advertised, it could easily be 
adapted for unsavory purposes, such as distributing child 
pornography. "This system is, in a sense, above the law," he says.   

FreeNet may be new, but the concept of distributed networks has a 
long history. The Internet itself was constructed as a distributed 
network. Look deep inside the Net and you'll find tiny packets of 
digital information finding their way from one computer to the next, 
largely without any central control. But then the user-friendly Web 
came along and created a new layer on top of the Net, centered 
around the servers that host Web sites. In a sense, FreeNet and 
Gnutella are a return to the Net's roots.   

These fledgling networks are now mutating at warp speed, driven by 
the explosion in online music. A controversial program called 
Napster was designed for college students to trade songs in the 
popular MP3 file format. But last week Napster buffs branched out 
into everything from full-length feature films to copies of Microsoft 
Word thanks to Wrapster, an underground program written to turn 
the music-trading community into an all-purpose bazaar.   

Napster, though largely peer-to-peer, relies on a central server to act 
as a directory. That means someone can pull the plug -- say, a court 
ruling in favor of the music companies now suing Napster. But 
Gnutella is practically invulnerable because it's diffuse. You have to 
find one other computer running the software, then you're 
automatically hooked to all of the other Gnutella machines that 
computer knows about. And by installing the program on your PC, 
you turn your own machine into part of the network's library, too.   

Strangers can tap into your computer at a furious clip. A few nights 
ago I watched as anonymous Gnutella users scanned my laptop for 
the computer game Quake, songs by Fleetwood Mac, and a variety 
of X-rated images. (For the record, they found none of the above.) 
The program lets you decide which portions of your hard drive can 
be searched and which are off-limits, but it's disconcerting 
nonetheless. If you want to give it a try, visit 
http://gnutella.nerdherd.net, one of the growing number of Web sites 
offering Gnutella downloads and information.   

Computer-security expert Avi Rubin warns Net users to be wary. A 
strange file-sharing program might become a hacker's tool for 
looting your entire hard drive. But Mr. Rubin, a researcher at AT&T 
Labs, is working on another distributed network. Called Publius, 
after the pseudonym used in the Federalist Papers, it's designed to 
defeat censorship.   

And Gnutella fans like Bryan Mayland, 26, of Tampa, Fla., are 
already developing new versions aimed at supporting thousands, 
not hundreds, of users. "This is unstoppable," Mr. Mayland says.   

Copyright 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.




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