Darknets are file sharing networks where users can share files with each other - sometimes copyrighted files such as mp3s and movies. Typically, a Darknet is a private virtual network where users only connect to people they trust, usually containing fewer than 10 users each. On Tuesday, the Pirate Party created Relakks, a Swedish broadband subscription service that has the potential to become a large scale commercial darknet. The party also wants to strengthen the right to privacy. The party strives to reform laws regarding intellectual property, including copyright, patent and the protection of design. Darknet RelakksĮarlier this year (January 2006), The Pirate Party (Swedish: Piratpartiet) became a new political party in Sweden. I like the idea so much that all of the content on this site as well as nearly 8,100 of my photos has a Creative Commons license.
I’ve met some of the folks over at Creative Commons and fully support their effort to create a new type of copyright law that allows content creators to share their original work with others and for others to legally use our build upon those works with a Creative Commons license. In one corner we have Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig speaking to LinuxWorld attendees about the Creative Commons license, and in the other we have a political party in Sweden called the Pirate Party establish a commercial darknet that lets anybody send and receive files (including copyrighted material) anonymously without being tracked or traced.