[pp.int.general] filesharing in space

[Damien Morton]

Just joined the list via an article on slashdot about the idea of
filesharing in space.

Read through the archives, and I have some thoughts I would like to share.

There were a number of proposals in the archives to put small
computers, communications and storage systems into a unit for
deployment on an unmanned balloon, boat, or satellite. The idea being
to deploy some kind of fileserver out of reach of national
authorities. In my opinion, these proposals are flawed on several
levels, the most important of which is the vulnerability of the
communication system that connects this remote server to the rest of
the internet.

Even if the pirate party builds its own moonbase full of servers and
scantily clad sysadmins and hackers, without some cheap and widely
available earth-moon communication system, no-one will be able to get
access.

Even if the pirate party builds its own LEO communication system -
maybe something comparable to the Iridium constellation - the
aggregate bandwidth of this system couldn't hope to compete with
terrestrial fibre based networks, not to mention the financial
impossibility and the problem of where to locate ground stations.

If there is some communication system that could provide enough
bandwidth to support filesharing, its certain that some commercial
entity will already be providing this service.

It seems clear to me that for communications, it will always be
necessary to use commercial systems, and to protect this
communications using encryption and such techniques to create a
darknet layer.

Even with an encrypted darknet, the weakness is the interface between
the darknet and public internet.

My suggestion is that the key vulnerability is the DNS system. It
wouldnt take much legal effort to start deleting sites like
piratebay.org from the global DNS system, and even though
piratebay1.org might spring up in its place, some percentage of the
userbase will be lost with each deletion. You might suggest an
alternate DNS system, but this would necessarily be centralised and
vulnerable to similar attacks.

So, the suggestion is to create an extra-national DNS server. This
would basically just be a relay system that broadcasts the DNS
database in such a manner that it can be received using commodity or
ham-radio level hardware.

Cubesats go for about USD50-100k each, which is in reach of the
finances of the pirate party.