Extending Darknets via Mobile NetworksExtending Darknets via Mobile NetworksI. An Overview of DarknetsThe term “darknet” was coined in 2002 by four Microsoft employees. It is typicallyused to describe one of the many peer-to-peer file sharing networks in wide use today. AsBiddle, England, Peinado and Willman state (2002), a “darknet is not a separate physicalnetwork but an application and protocol layer riding on existing networks.” Ideologically,however, such networks are thought to exist on the fringes of the regular, “legitimate” Internet.Despite this, evidence suggests that usage is on the rise. For example, according to Slyck.com(2006), users of some of the most popular peer-to-peer networks have reached almost tenmillion, and the trend up to this point has only been upward. Furthermore, this is only a small percentage of darknet traffic, since some other ad-hoc darknets, such as those created byBittorrent, are nearly impossible to measure in terms of number of users.At the time of this writing, digital piracy remains the most prevalent use of darknettechnologies. So far, the largest deterrents to such uses have been legal and technological. Themedia industries, largely comprised of Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) andRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA) member organizations, have waged a nearlycontinuous war against file sharing networks since the days of Napster. Armed with existingcopyright law, which was strengthened considerably by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act(DMCA) in 1998, the RIAA alone “has sued just over 18,000 individuals for sharing songsonline, with 4,500 settling for about $4,000 per case” (Graham, 2006). These cases so far seemto have had little impact, given the overall rise in popularity of darknets.Technological deterrents for digital piracy focus mainly on preventing or delaying “theinjection of new objects into the darknet” (Biddle, et al. 2002). Any litigation targeting3
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