A Moral Dilemma: Open letter to Gnutella community

[Ahri]

I agree with you, innoval, about two things. Gnutella should be free of illegal graphics/pornography, and legal pornography should not appear is search results by mistake. Unfortunately, problem number one is extremely difficult to correct, and if it is corrected, such material will simply move to another P2P network which does not solve the problem. Problem number two can be solved with co-operation of the major producers of Gnutella clients and without third party software such as yours. If you didn't already know, sub-networks can be created inside the Gnutella network. If one is created for pornography (limewire already has one) and it is just as accessible and easy to use as the mother network, I am sure no one would have a problem with using the porn sub-net instead. This would remove or reduce the pornography on the rest of the network to such a degree that accidental search results would not happen. I think this could work, but people have to want to make it work. With out support from all major Gnutella clients, filters like yours may the only solution.

I believe your concerns with the Gnutella net are valid ones, however, I believe the legal solutions such as the ones you have described are the wrong way to solve the problem. Even those attempts succeed, best case scenario, people use another P2P network and make the protocol more anonymous, more secure, and harder to deal with. Napster is a prime example. You didn't get pornography in your search results there did you? Closing it down just made kids pick-up Gnutella, and now look at what we got. These kinds of solutions will just make things worse. The attitude, "If I don't like it, I'll get ride of it", is poor one to have. I think the problems with P2P networks can and should be dealt with by better means.

I completely agree with Beckerish, and I appreciate his input on the matter. You can't blame anyone for being a little suspicious. Children don't need Gnutella to get pornography. Many millions more get it straight off the web. Why you chose to pursue an attack on Gnutella rather than the web may make some people curious until they look at your product.