File Sharing... In... Spaaaaaaace

from the yeah,-that's-not-going-to-work dept

Thu, Oct 21st 2010 5:38pm — Mike Masnick

Various folks are sending over stories reporting on rather preliminary conversations on the Pirate Parties International (PPI) mailing list, concerning ideas for a file sharing platform... in space. More or less, the idea was that there needs to be an effort to get out from various regional jurisdictions, and so the sci-fi idea of launching a server in a satellite was suggested. Others apparently thought a balloon would be a good idea. And, eventually, some suggested that maybe just putting it on a boat in international waters.

None of these plans sound likely (or even that reasonable). And all of them seem to more or less ignore the fact that each of these would still require downstream connections, which would be subject to specific laws. Add to that ideas like the proposed COICA bill in the US, which would let the country order ISPs to block websites, and you can see why these ideas, while creative, probably aren't going to get very far (and don't get us started on the technical hurdles to what they're discussing).

All that said, it is worth noting that this is just a peek into the ongoing game of whac-a-mole that the entertainment industry is dealing with. While these ideas are silly and unworkable, don't count out the fact that there are a lot of very smart people working on ways to make sure file sharing remains viable and available. Like it or not, it's here, and it's not going to go away. At some point, it's going to make sense for the industry to stop fighting, and start looking for ways to actually use it to their own advantage.

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Filed Under: file sharing, space

22 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 21 Oct 2010 @ 6:21pm

Looooooooooottttttttttttttttttssssssssssss of spacesuits.
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- Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 22 Oct 2010 @ 5:18am
  
  Re:
  If they didn't cost ten million dollars, I'd buy one.
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Bas Grasmayer (profile), 21 Oct 2010 @ 6:29pm

Taken from the Dutch Pirate Party list: "There have been some loose discussions about the technology on the PPI list, but for Ernesto @ Torrentfreak to assume that there would be such plans without confirming his sources is not what I would call professional journalism."
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Dementia (profile), 21 Oct 2010 @ 6:58pm

Well, you know, there is always The Principality of Sealand. If TPB isn't already based out of there.
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- Anonymous Coward, 21 Oct 2010 @ 8:37pm
  
  Re:
  Perhaps they will be carrying servers around in the backseats of their hovering flying cars.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Oct 2010 @ 7:30pm

Space Ghost has nothing on Space Pirates LoL

Anybody old enough to remember Herculoids?
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Oct 2010 @ 7:35pm

What about a file sharing platform in cyberspace...
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- chris (profile), 22 Oct 2010 @ 9:16am
  
  Re:
  or a space sharing program in cyberfile?
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Oct 2010 @ 7:35pm

Not quite so out of reach... Mike for someone in your position you're not open minded about the whole thing. For the upstream provider, it could easily be provided by a country with less or no laws against copyright. For the air/space thing, people would definitely donate to fundraisers, only if it's because they're the first ones to put it in action (I know I would).

Oh and we all know torrentfreak put up nice titles to bring in the people and tend to over-exagerate everything... they shouldn't be your base for real news.
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- Anonymous Coward, 21 Oct 2010 @ 7:42pm
  
  Re:
  "For the upstream provider, it could easily be provided by a country with less or no laws against copyright."
  
  The point of the article is to circumvent country laws not to find a country that has no such laws.
  
  Far off into the future who knows. Right now, while humans are very earth bound, this might be a problem, but into the future as we improve our ability to travel into space and implement devices in space it could be feasible.
  
  Of course, by then, tyrant govts would simply expand their jurisdiction to include the new territory, which is the main long term obstacle I see against these solutions and innovation in general.
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senshikaze (profile), 21 Oct 2010 @ 8:17pm

cryptonomicon
I am surprised nobody mentioned Neal Stephenson's book, Cryptonomicon. In it a group of techies get the capital to create a "data haven". The location was a tiny island country with a gigantic wwII bunker converted to a damn near nuke proof datacenter. the king of the island was all but bought off and fat, redundant pipes were laid from multiple countries to it. The laws of the country were changed to where government (inside and out) can't touch the data.

It is a brilliant idea. Nothing is monitored, and nothing is illegal. Anything goes. completely secure transfers in and out and no auditing. That is what we need.
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- Anonymous Coward, 21 Oct 2010 @ 9:11pm
  
  Re: cryptonomicon
  Some new technology (ie: quantum non - local communication) will probably come out that will make all these ideas (along with copy protection laws) obsolete and irrelevant. Even if the govt and their corporate leaders prevent it from being developed and sold in the free market, it will be delivered and sold on the black market, at least at first.
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  - Marcus Carab (profile), 22 Oct 2010 @ 6:40am
    
    Re: Re: cryptonomicon
    Rudimentary quantum computers? Yes. Leveraging entanglement for non-local communication? I wouldn't hold your breath on that one.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 22 Oct 2010 @ 3:44pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: cryptonomicon
      "I wouldn't hold your breath on that one."
      
      No one would have imagined some of the stuff we have now just twenty or even ten years ago either. 100, 200, 300 years from now who knows what will be available.
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      - Marcus Carab (profile), 22 Oct 2010 @ 3:52pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: cryptonomicon
        Oh yeah, by all means. I didn't really think you meant 100+ years in your original comment (god help us if current copyright laws haven't changed by then) - I just meant that in the next couple of decades I don't think defying locality is be possible any useful scale. There's still plenty of debate as to whether it is really happening even where it has supposedly been observed at the subatomic level.
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        Marcus Carab (profile), 22 Oct 2010 @ 3:54pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: cryptonomicon
        wow I don't know what I did when I changed that sentence...
        
        "..don't think defying locality is GOING TO be possible AT any useful scale."
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- Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 22 Oct 2010 @ 8:25am
  
  Re: cryptonomicon
  Cryptonomicon is my favorite book.
  
  The idea isn't new, and unless things start getting better in the copyright/internet surveillance front, it is bound to happen eventually. At that point, there will be enough money to be made off a data haven that it will only be a matter of economics.
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Dodongo, 21 Oct 2010 @ 9:31pm

I think the goal is more about preventing the police from raiding their servers than cirvumventing local laws.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Oct 2010 @ 9:46pm

Funny I was thinking this the other night, when Nova (PBS) had a documentary on satellites. Interesting, how often exploration is fueled through fleeing oppression.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Oct 2010 @ 5:01am

Obligatory TVTropes link
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RecycledInSpace
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mike allen (profile), 22 Oct 2010 @ 6:46am

its not such a bad idea either a satalite or a ship in international waters. but then hasnt that been done before in differant media?
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- chris (profile), 22 Oct 2010 @ 9:19am
  
  Re:
  its not such a bad idea either a satalite or a ship in international waters. but then hasnt that been done before in differant media?
  
  i thought that was how pirate radio worked.
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