The Pirate Bay to host servers with aerial drones.

[Seth King]

Better to disobey than ask for permission.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/03/19/the-pirate-bay-to-fly-server-drones-to-avoid-law-enforcement

[JustSayNoToStatism]

That's awesome.

[randallstevens]

You can use the homeless as well .

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/technology/homeless-as-wi-fi-transmitters-creates-a-stir-in-austin.html

[SinCityVoluntaryist]

 This has got to be one of the most badass things I've ever read. Question, though: where the hell did these guys get the money for unmanned drones? Those things aren't exactly cheap, and I doubt Wal-Mart has opened space for them.

[Will]

I don't see how this solves any problems, if anything it makes their servers more susceptible since they would be interfering with air traffic, something that can get you into some serious trouble. It seems like hiding out in the caves of the Scandinavian wilderness is a much safer option, not to mention cheaper.

It smells to me like April fools came a bit early this year.

[Seth King]

I don't see how this solves any problems, if anything it makes their servers more susceptible since they would be interfering with air traffic, something that can get you into some serious trouble. It seems like hiding out in the caves of the Scandinavian wilderness is a much safer option, not to mention cheaper.

It smells to me like April fools came a bit early this year.

My understanding is that the cost and size of UAV's and servers have dropped so much that it makes a feat like this possible.

As far as the penalties for interfering with air traffic goes, could the penalties be any worse than what the governments threaten for file sharing nowadays?

[kunkmiester]

They need to run a kickstarter to put one in orbit.  That would be more epic, and even safer if you get it in a mid orbit or higher.  Most ASAT systems are limited to LEO.

[JustSayNoToStatism]

This makes me think about attempts to immortalize information networks. We worry about the internet being shut down or about privacy and things like that. What if we didn't need to go through ISPs? What if we all carried and placed very small devices that could transmit the information to others? We could set up our own network, and write programs to hop the information from person to person taking the quickest way to go from place to place? As devices get smaller and cheaper, they would be easy to hide (or carry), and we could have them everywhere. Limitations I see right now are how far you can transmit information (I have no idea).

Anyone want to brainstorm this topic with me? What are important things we would need? What is preventing us from doing it right now? Workarounds? Random thoughts? Please share.

[Seth King]

This makes me think about attempts to immortalize information networks. We worry about the internet being shut down or about privacy and things like that. What if we didn't need to go through ISPs? What if we all carried and placed very small devices that could transmit the information to others? We could set up our own network, and write programs to hop the information from person to person taking the quickest way to go from place to place? As devices get smaller and cheaper, they would be easy to hide (or carry), and we could have them everywhere. Limitations I see right now are how far you can transmit information (I have no idea).

Anyone want to brainstorm this topic with me? What are important things we would need? What is preventing us from doing it right now? Workarounds? Random thoughts? Please share.

The mesh network is already being worked on. I think it's only a matter of time...

[JustSayNoToStatism]

I searched for mesh network and looked through the wikipedia page. That's pretty much what I was saying, with the "hopping" and all. But are people actually trying to make this happen on a large scale? I feel like we could do it right now. You wouldn't need it to be able to transmit multimedia at this point. Just something to send encrypted text messages would be sufficient. That way computing needs would be very limited, and you could have tiny, inexpensive computers able to handle it all. The more I think about it, the less complicated it seems. The reason to go with just text at this point is because it allows us to build the network early. Then as Moore's law goes to work, we'd be able to send more and more things. So the network would grow slowly in terms of functionality, but also in terms of number of people using it. That way it wouldn't ever get flooded.

[Will]

I don't see how this solves any problems, if anything it makes their servers more susceptible since they would be interfering with air traffic, something that can get you into some serious trouble. It seems like hiding out in the caves of the Scandinavian wilderness is a much safer option, not to mention cheaper.

It smells to me like April fools came a bit early this year.

My understanding is that the cost and size of UAV's and servers have dropped so much that it makes a feat like this possible.

As far as the penalties for interfering with air traffic goes, could the penalties be any worse than what the governments threaten for file sharing nowadays?

Cheaper, but not cheap. Plus, none of these drones (even the ones with ridiculous amounts of government funding) has ever stayed airborne for more than 14 days. They're going to have to come back to earth often and if they don't shoot them down first they can just follow the drones back to the headquarters and raid that.

As to the prison sentences, Sweden is pretty lenient by international standards when it comes to non-violent crimes. I mean the 3 'founders' of Pirate Bay are all serving less than a year right now, compare this to the guys from MegaVideo who are in for what, 50 years possibly? Have your little plane get in the way of a commercial jet and the Swedes are not going to be that kind.

[Seth King]

I searched for mesh network and looked through the wikipedia page. That's pretty much what I was saying, with the "hopping" and all. But are people actually trying to make this happen on a large scale? I feel like we could do it right now. You wouldn't need it to be able to transmit multimedia at this point. Just something to send encrypted text messages would be sufficient. That way computing needs would be very limited, and you could have tiny, inexpensive computers able to handle it all. The more I think about it, the less complicated it seems. The reason to go with just text at this point is because it allows us to build the network early. Then as Moore's law goes to work, we'd be able to send more and more things. So the network would grow slowly in terms of functionality, but also in terms of number of people using it. That way it wouldn't ever get flooded.

I think there would be a large upfront cost to each individual who wanted to buy their own transmitter only to gain very little if anything from it.

The internet as it stands now is simply too good for most people to want to switch to something that basically sucks in comparison, even if it is more resilient.

Now, if the government squishes the internet into oblivion, people may be willing to go that route. Problem is, the government won't likely squish the internet into oblivion... just the content it doesn't like, which most people won't miss anyways. This is where .onion sites shine, in my opinion.

[JustSayNoToStatism]

I think there would be a large upfront cost to each individual who wanted to buy their own transmitter only to gain very little if anything from it.

The internet as it stands now is simply too good for most people to want to switch to something that basically sucks in comparison, even if it is more resilient.

Now, if the government squishes the internet into oblivion, people may be willing to go that route. Problem is, the government won't likely squish the internet into oblivion... just the content it doesn't like, which most people won't miss anyways. This is where .onion sites shine, in my opinion.

Well the cost of getting started isn't that high for the people who interested in stuff like this (if I had to estimate I'd say $100-$200). The goal isn't to get something "better" than or even equal to the internet, the goal is to perform an experiment in decentralizing information networks. I don't plan on getting "regular" people involved until much later (for them, I see no reason why we couldn't get some little USB gadget to make their regular computers compatible with the network, and then give away free software to complete the package...regardless, that's the last stage of it all). Even so, if you take the union of anarchists, survivalists, and computer hobbyist nerds, I bet there are enough people to get a network going. I guess I should study up on wireless transmission of information. I know that the FCC regulates how far you can send and what frequencies. Anyone here with a strong tech background who has thought about this stuff before? Could you make it truly anonymous? The internet in its current form cannot be used anonymously.