On Fri, Aug 09, 2002 at 10:05:15AM -0700, AARG! Anonymous wrote:
On Gnutella discussion sites, programmers are discussing a number of technical proposals that would make access to the network contingent on good behavior: If you write code that hurts Gnutella, in other words, you don't get to play. One idea would allow only "clients that you can authenticate" to speak on the network, Fisk says. This would include the five-or-so most popular Gnutella applications, including "Limewire, BearShare, Toadnode, Xolox, Gtk-Gnutella, and Gnucleus." If new clients want to join the group, they would need to abide by a certain communication specification.
They intend to do this using digital signatures, and there is precedent for this in past situations where there have been problems:
Depending on the clients to "do the right thing" is fundamentally stupid. [..]
Be sure and send a note to the Gnutella people reminding them of all you're doing for them, okay, Lucky?
This sort of attack doesn't do your position any good. Eric