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Re: [LUG] Routing around damage

 

On Sun, Mar 23, 2014 at 11:33:07AM +0000, Philip Hudson wrote:
> I refer you back to the first post in this thread, which links to
> precisely that. Again, I request that you read it and comment *on its
> content*.

I apologise. I had read that but hadn't linked it to this part of the
thread, which was about Turkey blocking Twitter's DNS.

I think it's a neat idea from a technical point of view, but I see
several issues. One obvious issue is that it depends on a critical mass
of users running the software.

A more serious issue, if I understand the idea well enough, is that
your peers have some insight in the content you're accessing. Which
means it would be easy for a big adversary to run several peers and
use that to keep track of who is accessing blocked content.

That is *far worse* than simply blocking the content. Chilling effect
and all that.

> What I object to so strongly is precisely the negative,
> obstructionist, bogus pretexts for not fixing DNS (which even you seem
> to agree is a system with multiple defects, shortcomings, call it what
> you will -- the standard term of  art is "bug") that are being thrown
> up as reason not to pursue this fix.

I'd say a bug is something that produces unexpected results, or make
something behave in unintended ways. (Thank you, Wikipedia.) Which is
something else than unwanted features. Or, perhaps more relevant today,
features that we don't want any more.

I think it's important that we look at how we can "fix DNS", but we
should also make sure that these fixes don't have unwanted side-affects
that break the way DNS works well for billions of people every day.

> You may not recognize the syndrome I identified and accused Martin of,
> but it is very real. It is reactionary, anti-egalitarian, elitist, and
> protectionist.

I know (and knew) what you meant. I just thought it was an over-the-top
reaction to Martin's post, and not helpful to the discussion.

Martijn.


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