Let’s hope this software is very successful and brings those in the dark of censorship into the light of the open Internet. (Considering the calls for repression of expression here in the US from the right, we may need something like this ourselves one day.)
The Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies announced Sunday that it will release psiphon, a “human rights software project,” under General Public License, by Friday. The system, part of the lab’s CiviSec Project, is funded by the Open Society Institute.
It is not entirely bulletproof, but developers say it will be difficult for censors to identify and block psiphon.
People in free countries can install the free open source software and turn their home computers into “psiphonodes,” or personal, encrypted servers. The psiphonode administrator can create and manage user accounts so friends and relatives can log in from censored countries. The encrypted connection allows people in restrictive countries to go to the administrators’ unique Web addresses, login with usernames and passwords provided by administrators, and surf the Web.
The psiphon Web site, which provides the software, doesn’t have to be operative for the software to work. In other words, even if a censoring regime blocks access to the psiphon Web site, people in restrictive countries can access the wide open Web through their friends’ and family members’ computers.
Freedom of information is the foundation of democracy.
Can I use it to get around the content blocking scheme at work?
Can you contributors at least pretend not to be so biased? There are plenty of “calls for repression of expression” from the left too. For examples: “hate” speech, political campaigning (financing, electioneering)…
This Candanian based group will soon be declared a terrorist organization by Bush and the GOP mafia. I hope they will delay release of this software until after Jan 1st to at least avert war.
I don’t see why contributors have to pretend not to be bias. It is a blog after all… It would be like asking everyone who post comments to leave their own views at home. If you want “neutral” news, blogs are not the place for it… and reading, listening and watching the medias you guys have down there in the states.. you won’t find it there also.
#4 “I don’t see why contributors have to pretend not to be bias. It is a blog after all…”
I’d agree with you, but that’d be expressing a biased opinion, which apparently we’re not allowed to do any more.
Cage match thread.
http://cagematch.dvorak.org/index.php/topic,638.0.html
0. Not to mention the bonus of making a few $$ selling child porn. /s
RBG
0. And freedom of expensive and powerful advertising is the foundation of autocracy.
RBG
What is to stop our dear beloved Leader from adding sites which run psi-phon to their block lists? How would they do that? Block all encrypted traffic, then unblock on an IP by IP basis??
Sorta like all those conservatives on college campuses who shout down liberal speakers, set up absurd “free speech zones,” and deny student activity fee money to progressive student groups… wait… it’s the other way around, isn’t it?
0. And while I’m at it:
Freedom of intoxication is the foundation of idiocracy.
RBG
11,
You’re free to drink as much as you like.
if a censoring regime blocks access to the psiphon Web site, people in restrictive countries can access the wide open Web through their friends’ and family members’ computers.
and
9 Block all encrypted traffic, then unblock on an IP by IP basis??
Makes me wonder, in countries which have such restrictive control of the infrastructure, since they can use traffic analysis and packet inspection to check on any suspicious connections.
Its like the RIAA/MPAA hiring people to get on the p2p networks and monitor what is being searched for, offered, and exchanged.
http://www.baytsp.com/solutions_content.html
“Restrictive” regimes can download the psiphon software and reverse-engineer what its network “signatures” are – they can even setup their own “psiphonodes” and be a tainted cog in the system… 🙁
The company I work for makes devices that do deep packet inspection: CIE = “Content Inspection Engine”…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_packet_inspection
This technology is what will allow ISPs to “tier” their systems, giving priority for items you, or their “partners”, have paid extra for – and giving reduced priority to everything else – especially competing products [VoIP, etc]
But it also allows restrictive regimes [i.e. China using DPI in the routers/switches they purchased from Cisco].
Don’t think you can just put a “wrapper” on a packet, and it will sail through the network in anonymity…
I agree with #4, this is a blog, for Pete’s sake!
The above are correct, in theory you can monitor this, but by using HTTPS the amount of data that would have to be sifted is prohibitive. Anyone accessing any secure site for any reason would look the same untill you actually do a deep analysis. That’s, for instance, anyone doing online banking as well as this.
15 So if the censors unblock the 1,000 banking IPs which are acceptable to the beloved Leader, they can block all other https traffic !?
It’s kind of like encrypting email. If you encrypt, then the National Security Whatever which accumulates all the email it can log may not be able to read it, but they WILL log your email address as suspicious, dangerous ….
Objectivity is preferable. Hypocrisy is not. Blog or not, tell me, what is the point of throwing in a parenthetical like that when “right” could be replaced with “left” and the statement would be just as valid?
my school wont let me get onto sites i want to on there server
what do i do