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Naive question: if data on IPFS is permanent, meaning it's hard or impossible to remove things from it, what mechanisms, if any, exists to prevent unlawful cont

by tw1010 9y ago

Naive question: if data on IPFS is permanent, meaning it's hard or impossible to remove things from it, what mechanisms, if any, exists to prevent unlawful content from being uploaded to it?

oblio 9y ago
> What mechanisms, if any, exists to prevent unlawful content from being uploaded to it? Probably the same ones used against P2P, lawsuits and pressure on national governments to crack down against the offenders :)
- tw1010 9y ago
  So there is a way to figure out who is downloading what on IPFS? (At least assuming that you have assets comparable to national governments.)
  - wybiral 9y ago
    Yeah, the nodes connect via IP addresses. You could proxy it through Tor or something though.
    - icebraining 9y ago
      As far as I understand it, proxying it is dangerous because IPFS will announce all your IPs so that the shortest routes can be established. You probably need to run it in a VM/container that only has access to Tor and no other network adapter.
      - wybiral 9y ago
        Ah, good to know. I love the idea behind IPFS but it just doesn't feel mature enough yet. The documentation, examples, consistent APIs, etc, don't seem very solidified.
        diggan 9y ago
        Thanks! We're hard at work making everything better, especially the documentation and examples bit, but lots of work on the APIs as well. If you have anything concrete to suggest or help out with, please open up a issue in the relevant repository, this would be the entrypoint to find your way around in our Github organization: https://github.com/ipfs/ipfs https://github.com/ipfs/ipfs Disclaimer: I work for Protocol Labs on IPFS
        snow_mac 9y ago
        I want to contribute, experienced senior web dev. Where do I get started?
        diggan 9y ago
        Jump into #ipfs on freenode (IRC) and tell us what area you want to contribute to and someone can point you in the right direction. Otherwise, assuming you know JavaScript, https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3Adifficulty%3Aeasy https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissu... is a great place to start. If you have some Golang experience, https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3Adifficulty%3Aeasy https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissu... should work to find you some beginner issues.
      - diggan 9y ago
        > announce all your IPs That's configurable. Check the format for the config here: https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/blob/master/docs/config.md#addresses https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/blob/master/docs/config.md#a... Keyword being `Announce` and `NoAnnounce`
      - creatonez 9y ago
        It's pretty easy to configure ipfs to not advertise internal IP addresses. Though it really should be the default behavior.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
tscs37 9y ago
Data on IPFS is not permanent, nodes only host cached or pinned content (the later is explicit).
fyi1183 9y ago
You don't really upload things to IPFS, since it works like Bittorrent: you make files available by adding them, but that doesn't copy those files anywhere. They're only transferred via the network to clients that specifically request them, which makes this a non-issue. Now FileCoin, that's a different issue...
- Cyberdog 9y ago
  Could you elaborate on why Filecoin is a different issue? Is it because I have to specifically download (or allow others to upload to me) the files so I can host them?
  - fyi1183 9y ago
    With FileCoin (the IPFS-related ICO with no implementation), the idea is that you're offering your storage space to others in exchange for a fee. So somebody could use your system to store, say, child porn. With plain IPFS that cannot happen, because you're only downloading what you're interested in. That's what I meant when I wrote that IPFS is like Bittorrent.
    - Cyberdog 9y ago
      I would hope that safe harbor laws would protect you in a case like that, similar to how Amazon doesn't get busted if one of their customers uses AWS to store illegal material.

by tw1010 9y ago

Naive question: if data on IPFS is permanent, meaning it's hard or impossible to remove things from it, what mechanisms, if any, exists to prevent unlawful content from being uploaded to it?

oblio 9y ago

> What mechanisms, if any, exists to prevent unlawful content from being uploaded to it? Probably the same ones used against P2P, lawsuits and pressure on national governments to crack down against the offenders :)

tw1010 9y ago
So there is a way to figure out who is downloading what on IPFS? (At least assuming that you have assets comparable to national governments.)
- wybiral 9y ago
  Yeah, the nodes connect via IP addresses. You could proxy it through Tor or something though.
  - icebraining 9y ago
    As far as I understand it, proxying it is dangerous because IPFS will announce all your IPs so that the shortest routes can be established. You probably need to run it in a VM/container that only has access to Tor and no other network adapter.
    - wybiral 9y ago
      Ah, good to know. I love the idea behind IPFS but it just doesn't feel mature enough yet. The documentation, examples, consistent APIs, etc, don't seem very solidified.
      - diggan 9y ago
        Thanks! We're hard at work making everything better, especially the documentation and examples bit, but lots of work on the APIs as well. If you have anything concrete to suggest or help out with, please open up a issue in the relevant repository, this would be the entrypoint to find your way around in our Github organization: https://github.com/ipfs/ipfs https://github.com/ipfs/ipfs Disclaimer: I work for Protocol Labs on IPFS
        snow_mac 9y ago
        I want to contribute, experienced senior web dev. Where do I get started?
        diggan 9y ago
        Jump into #ipfs on freenode (IRC) and tell us what area you want to contribute to and someone can point you in the right direction. Otherwise, assuming you know JavaScript, https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3Adifficulty%3Aeasy https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissu... is a great place to start. If you have some Golang experience, https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3Adifficulty%3Aeasy https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissu... should work to find you some beginner issues.
    - diggan 9y ago
      > announce all your IPs That's configurable. Check the format for the config here: https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/blob/master/docs/config.md#addresses https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/blob/master/docs/config.md#a... Keyword being `Announce` and `NoAnnounce`
    - creatonez 9y ago
      It's pretty easy to configure ipfs to not advertise internal IP addresses. Though it really should be the default behavior.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

tscs37 9y ago

Data on IPFS is not permanent, nodes only host cached or pinned content (the later is explicit).

fyi1183 9y ago

You don't really upload things to IPFS, since it works like Bittorrent: you make files available by adding them, but that doesn't copy those files anywhere. They're only transferred via the network to clients that specifically request them, which makes this a non-issue. Now FileCoin, that's a different issue...

Cyberdog 9y ago
Could you elaborate on why Filecoin is a different issue? Is it because I have to specifically download (or allow others to upload to me) the files so I can host them?
- fyi1183 9y ago
  With FileCoin (the IPFS-related ICO with no implementation), the idea is that you're offering your storage space to others in exchange for a fee. So somebody could use your system to store, say, child porn. With plain IPFS that cannot happen, because you're only downloading what you're interested in. That's what I meant when I wrote that IPFS is like Bittorrent.
  - Cyberdog 9y ago
    I would hope that safe harbor laws would protect you in a case like that, similar to how Amazon doesn't get busted if one of their customers uses AWS to store illegal material.