Infoanarchism
Encyclopedia
Infoanarchism is an umbrella term
for various groups of people who are opposed to forms of intellectual property
, such as copyright
and patent
s. The term was coined in a TIME Magazine article called "The Infoanarchist" in July 2000. The article was about Ian Clarke, known as the original designer and lead developer of Freenet
. The anti-copyright
movement includes a wide range of groups and views. Infoanarchists have emerged as part of the broader copyright social conflict and copyright
debate.
Infoanarchists may use anonymous
networks, like Freenet
, Entropy
, Tor
or I2P
, to help protect their anonymity. These anonymous networks make it difficult for observers, or any middleman, to determine what traffic is going across the network. Such technology may serve to protect people who wish to publish or receive digital files anonymously, like corporate whistleblowers, political dissidents, or groups that engage in the deliberate infringement of copyright law.
Umbrella term
An umbrella term is a word that provides a superset or grouping of concepts that all fall under a single common category. Umbrella term is also called a hypernym. For example, cryptology is an umbrella term that encompasses cryptography and cryptanalysis, among other fields...
for various groups of people who are opposed to forms of intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
, such as copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
and patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
s. The term was coined in a TIME Magazine article called "The Infoanarchist" in July 2000. The article was about Ian Clarke, known as the original designer and lead developer of Freenet
Freenet
Freenet is a decentralized, censorship-resistant distributed data store originally designed by Ian Clarke. According to Clarke, Freenet aims to provide freedom of speech through a peer-to-peer network with strong protection of anonymity; as part of supporting its users' freedom, Freenet is free and...
. The anti-copyright
Anti-copyright
Anti-copyright refers to the complete or partial opposition to prevalent copyright laws. Copyright is known as the owner's right for copies to be only made by the owner or with his/her authorization in form of a license....
movement includes a wide range of groups and views. Infoanarchists have emerged as part of the broader copyright social conflict and copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
debate.
Infoanarchists may use anonymous
Anonymity
Anonymity is derived from the Greek word ἀνωνυμία, anonymia, meaning "without a name" or "namelessness". In colloquial use, anonymity typically refers to the state of an individual's personal identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown.There are many reasons why a...
networks, like Freenet
Freenet
Freenet is a decentralized, censorship-resistant distributed data store originally designed by Ian Clarke. According to Clarke, Freenet aims to provide freedom of speech through a peer-to-peer network with strong protection of anonymity; as part of supporting its users' freedom, Freenet is free and...
, Entropy
Entropy (anonymous data store)
Entropy was a decentralized, peer-to-peer communication network designed to be resistant to censorship, much like Freenet. Entropy was an anonymous data store written in the C programming language. It pooled the contributed bandwidth and storage space of member computers to allowed users to...
, Tor
Tor (anonymity network)
Tor is a system intended to enable online anonymity. Tor client software routes Internet traffic through a worldwide volunteer network of servers in order to conceal a user's location or usage from someone conducting network surveillance or traffic analysis...
or I2P
I2P
I2P is a mixed-license, free and open source project building an anonymous network .The network is a simple layer that applications can use to anonymously and securely send...
, to help protect their anonymity. These anonymous networks make it difficult for observers, or any middleman, to determine what traffic is going across the network. Such technology may serve to protect people who wish to publish or receive digital files anonymously, like corporate whistleblowers, political dissidents, or groups that engage in the deliberate infringement of copyright law.
See also
- WikileaksWikileaksWikiLeaks is an international self-described not-for-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The Sunshine Press organisation, claimed a database of more...
- copyleftCopyleftCopyleft is a play on the word copyright to describe the practice of using copyright law to offer the right to distribute copies and modified versions of a work and requiring that the same rights be preserved in modified versions of the work...
- Free CultureFree CultureFree Culture may refer to:* Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig* Free culture movement, a social movement for free culture...
- P2PPeer-to-peer file sharingP2P or Peer-to-peer file sharing allows users to download files such as music, movies, and games using a P2P software client that searches for other connected computers. The "peers" are computer systems connected to each other through internet. Thus, the only requirements for a computer to join...
- CrimethInc. N©! licenseCrimethInc. N©! licenseThe CrimethInc. N©! license is a copyleft anarchist license with restrictions of use based on anti-statism and anti-corporatism. The terms of use were written by the CrimethInc. Ex-Workers Collective and included in some of their works such as the group's "cookbook", Recipes for Disaster. The...
- Pirate PartyPirate PartyThe Pirate Party is a political party in Sweden founded in 2006. Its sudden popularity has given rise to parties with the same name and similar goals in Europe and worldwide, forming the international Pirate Party movement....
- Open societyOpen societyThe open society is a concept originally developed by philosopher Henri Bergson and then by Austrian and British philosopher Karl Popper. In open societies, government is purported to be responsive and tolerant, and political mechanisms are said to be transparent and flexible...