The Darknet & the Future of Everything*

Peter N. Biddle

@obs3sd

*

Public service

Gun control

Surveillance

Robots

Digital Goods

Terrorism

Actions

The Future

Education

Government

Drones

Drugs

Physical Goods

Privacy

Ideas

Thoughts

2002

The darknet is “a collection of networks and technologies used to share”

P2P

Sneakernet

Forums

Usenet

Facebook

Bitcasa

Twitter

namespace

stuff

nodes

links

• Links – physical or virtual connections

• Nodes – points in the network

• Stuff – the things on the network

• Namespace – this tells us where stuff is

It’s a LOT like the internet.

Control

• Block the namespace

– Ex: shut down piratebay

• Throttle throughput within links

– Ex: DPI

• Control what happens inside nodes

– Ex: don’t let users be admin

• Make stuff inaccessible

– Ex: DRMed content

There is no way for technology to permanently curb the darknet as long

as there is an internet (as we know and love or hate it).

I know, I spent a few years trying… • Storage Evangelist for MSFT starting Dec 1995 • DVD: Yay! Cool! VHRA and TRD! Boo! Hiss! • CPTWG compromises: “user accessible busses”, 40 bit keys*,

working inside existing mask ROM, no internet connection • DivX – so yeah, some people at MSFT wanted to go that way • Disney & Warner “no content above 480p without fixing the

(analog and digital) holes” • Trusted Windows – make Windows PCs as good at protecting

stuph as everyone else without destroying ecosystem • CPTWG worked so let’s try formalizing and solving the music

problem (SDMI)

My conclusion: Biased technology allows for the concentration of power,

which makes for more harm than good. Neutral technology allows goodness to

triumph naturally.

Lunatic Fringe Alt People Mainstream Alt People Lunatic Fringe

people

Deny Manage FUD Appease Delight Reward Delight Appease FUD Manage Deny

access

“If the darknet is efficient, then content will be rapidly propagated to all

interested peers.”

What do you mean by “rapidly”?

Federal Controlled Substances Act of 1970

(17) The term “narcotic drug” means any of the following whether produced directly or indirectly by extraction from substances of vegetable origin, or independently by means of chemical synthesis, or by a combination of extraction and chemical synthesis: (A) Opium, opiates, derivatives of opium and opiates, including their isomers, esters, ethers, salts, and salts of isomers, esters, and ethers, whenever the existence of such isomers, esters, ethers, and salts is possible within the specific chemical designation. Such term does not include the isoquinoline alkaloids of opium. (B) Poppy straw and concentrate of poppy straw. (18) The term “opiate” means any drug or other substance having an addiction-forming or addiction-sustaining liability similar to morphine or being capable of conversion into a drug having such addiction-forming or addiction-sustaining liability. (19) The term “opium poppy” means the plant of the species Papaver somniferum L., except the seed thereof. (22) The term “production” includes the manufacture, planting, cultivation, growing, or harvesting of a controlled substance. (23) The term “immediate precursor” means a substance— (A) which the Attorney General has found to be and by regulation designated as being the principal compound used, or produced primarily for use, in the manufacture of a controlled substance; (B) which is an immediate chemical intermediary used or likely to be used in the manufacture of such controlled substance; and (C) the control of which is necessary to prevent, curtail, or limit the manufacture of such controlled substance.

Poppies: ~4K years to get to this:

1953 – Hugh Hefner starts Playboy

1965 – Bob Guccione starts Penthouse

1969 – First mainstream movie, followed by many notable porn movies

Porn

1976 – VHS enables broad distribution

1984 – Early online distribution of porn

1986 – US attorney General Edwin Meese published 1960 page report investigating porn at the order of the President

1994 – sex.com registered by Gary Kreman

1997 – DVD Introduction & Pay per view makes high quality distribution and rendering easier

Late 1990 – early 2000 – Porn industry establishes a successful internet distribution

2000 – 2003 – AmEx and Paypal stop processing porn transactions, Yahoo removes porn banners from search

Current - technology makes it really easy to develop high quality porn and find an audience for it

Riots

http://haimbresheeth.com/gaza/2012/02/07/

"Everyone in edmonton enfield wood green

everywhere in north link up at enfield town station at 4 o clock sharp!!!!," it began.

"Start leaving ur yards n linking up with your

niggas. Fuck da feds, bring your ballys and your bags

trollys, cars vans, hammers the lot!!"

“if you are competing with the darknet, you must compete on the darknet’s

own terms: that is convenience and low cost rather than additional security”

DivX v1

Napster June 1999

“i liked the old Napster it was very user

friendly and had great music selection”

“Napster was the greatest program, you could find all the music

new and old on it”

“If there are subverted hosts, then content will leak into the darknet.”

“I’d rather they steal Office than pay for something else.”

Walled Gardens

“In the presence of an infinitely efficient darknet – which allows

instantaneous transmission of objects to all interested users – even

sophisticated DRM systems are inherently ineffective.”

Palladium

ERM vs. DRM Bitlocker

You CAN protect some of the stuff some of the time. You can’t protect all

of the stuff all the time forever.

“there will be short-term impediments to the effectiveness of the darknet as a distribution mechanism, but ultimately the darknet-genie will not be put back

into the bottle.”

Barrel Proofing

Desktop printing 1983- Type

Processor One

1984 - Commercial

offering by Best, adoption explodes

1985 - Apple Laser printer &

Pagemaker introduced

1986 - GEM-based Ventura Publisher

for MS-DOS computers

1986 - Desktop Publishing moved

to the home market

Desktop printing software grows –

coreldraw, QuarkXpress et al

Sales of printers and All-in-ones worldwide,

2000-2009

Darknets exist because somebody somewhere is attempting to tax,

throttle or block the flow of information.

What about the FUTURE?

3D Printing and…

…Guns

…Knives

…Forks

…Baby Stroller Parts

…Drugs

…DNA

Surveillance

Drones

Terrorism & Public Safety

Boston Marathon bombings show us the strengths and limitations of

controls and unregulated information flow.

How will the Darknet change?

• Nodes will become links

• Namespace becomes infinitely distributed

• Content self distributes

• Content can become the darknet itself through steganography and encryption

Proposals

Accept that we cannot control the flow of information.

Education is critical.

Educate natives as natives – don’t try to turn them into tourists. (FB Wall

experience)

Elect some natives. We have a couple of years. Let’s get on it.

Build neutral, non-biased tech. Like, oh, services that actually help people

connect and interact with other people without inherent bias.

The more robust the end nodes, the less awful the bottom half of the

internet will become.

Diplomacy Requires Compromise (I’m sorry about DVD regionalization)

Lunatic Fringe Alt People Mainstream Alt People Lunatic Fringe

people

Deny Manage FUD Appease Delight Reward Delight Appease FUD Manage Deny

access