The Word Spy for 08/28/2003 -- darknet

[Paul McFedries]

darknet n.

The collection of networks and other technologies that enable people 
to illegally share copyrighted digital files with little or no fear 
of detection. Also: Darknet.

Example Citation
---------------------------------
Here is a prediction: the darknet will never die. Adversaries will 
send out their digital agents to hunt down its disciples. But the 
darknet will go further underground, finding new ways to escape the 
reach of these electronic attackers. The faithful will find safety by 
banding together in small groups, beyond the reach of the 
oppressors.

The script for the next Matrix sequel? No -- because the darknet is 
already here: it is the unofficial side of the internet. And its 
resilience guarantees that it will remain a thorn in the side of the 
music and movie industries, whatever successes they may have in 
crushing its early manifestations.
--Richard Waters, "No respite from the forces of darknet," Financial 
Times (London), July 29, 2003

Backgrounder
---------------------------------
The ominous tone that pervades the word "darknet" is probably no 
accident. That's because the joint coiners of the term -- Peter 
Biddle, Paul England, Marcus Peinado, and Bryan Willman -- are 
employees of Microsoft, a company on the forefront of something 
called digital rights management. DRM is a set of technologies that 
aims not just to ensure that people pay for copyrighted digital 
content, but also that they can't make illegal copies of that 
content. In a paper called "The Darknet and the Future of Content 
Distribution" (see http://crypto.stanford.edu/DRM2002/darknet5.doc), 
the above authors argue that the existence of the darknet severely 
undermines all DRM initiatives, which is dark news indeed for 
Microsoft and every other company that hopes to control the use and 
abuse of copyrighted digital files.

Earliest Citation
---------------------------------
"Users will copy objects if it is possible and interesting to do so," 
said authors Peter Biddle, Paul England, Marcus Peinado and Bryan 
Willman. That truism, they said, when combined with a high-bandwidth 
network and only a fraction of users initially sharing content, made 
the darknet ubiquitous. Sharing has existed for years, they argued, 
but the "sneaker net" approach of mixed cassette tapes passed among 
friends or sent through the mail meant the copyright abuse was 
"trivial."
--Patrick Ross, "Microsoft Employees Write That DRM Systems Is Doomed 
to Fail," Washington Internet Daily, November 25, 2002

First Use
---------------------------------
We investigate the darknet -- a collection of networks and 
technologies used to share digital content. The darknet is not a 
separate physical network but an application and protocol layer 
riding on existing networks. Examples of darknets are peer-to-peer 
file sharing, CD and DVD copying, and key or password sharing on 
email and newsgroups. The last few years have seen vast increases in 
the darknetms aggregate bandwidth, reliability, usability, size of 
shared library, and availability of search engines. In this paper we 
categorize and analyze existing and future darknets, from both the 
technical and legal perspectives. We speculate that 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.
--Peter Biddle, Paul England, Marcus Peinado, and Bryan Willman, "The 
Darknet and the Future of Content Distribution," Digital Rights 
Management conference, November 22, 2002

See Also 
---------------------------------
bitlegging:
http://www.wordspy.com/words/bitlegging.asp

burn and return:
http://www.wordspy.com/words/burnandreturn.asp

cuckoo egg:
http://www.wordspy.com/words/cuckooegg.asp

digifeiter:
http://www.wordspy.com/words/digifeiter.asp

IP thief:
http://www.wordspy.com/words/IPthief.asp

Napster bomb:
http://www.wordspy.com/words/Napsterbomb.asp

P2P:
http://www.wordspy.com/words/P2P.asp

Subject Categories
---------------------------------
Computers - Data:
http://www.wordspy.com/index/Computers-Data.asp

Computers - Internet:
http://www.wordspy.com/index/Computers-Internet.asp

Computers - Networking:
http://www.wordspy.com/index/Computers-Networking.asp

Computers - Programming and Software:
http://www.wordspy.com/index/Computers-ProgrammingandSoftware.asp

Words About Words
---------------------------------
The best craftsman always leaves holes and gaps in the works of the 
poem so that something that is not in the poem can creep, crawl, 
flash, or thunder in. The joy and function of poetry is, and was, the 
celebration of man, which is also the celebration of God.
--Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet, short-story writer, and playwright, 
"Poetic Manifesto" in the _Texas Quarterly_, Winter 1961

Miscellanea
---------------------------------
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