FAQ
From OFFWiki
Who are you?
A dove, a pirate, a ninja, a runaway code snippet, a party crasher, a three year old box of crackers, a prophet, a code monkey, a legal pundit, among many others whose interests have collided into what you’re going to read… right now.
Why are you doing this?
Good questions. The reasons are as varied as the people who came together here. Some of us find the overwhelming legal presence of the copyright industry a distinct and severe threat to technical innovation. Some of us find the paradigm-shifting concept of a brightnet fascinating. Still, others will back anything that can fight the copyright industry’s toe-hold on the free flow of information. Most of us are just insane, though.
How does this work?
Tech Heads should probably read the technical details; here’s the layman’s story:
Files “inserted” into the OFF System are turned into randomized blocks of data through a process known as “multi-use encoding.” Multiple use encoding, “one-to-many” encoding, is a way in which you give one object multiple meanings or representations. It is similar to the notion of pen and paper: you can draw, scribble, trace, do your homework, or create a masterpiece of stick figures with them. Even if you were to create copyright infringing fan art, the pen and paper would still be legal to own, possess, and pass around with your friends.
Hasn't this been done before?
This is not a new concept. Nothing revolutionary here: it has been proposed several times in the past, but, before now, there has not been a need for this technology.
“Why?”
Because the pen is legal to possess. It has multiple uses, and it is not a tool used solely for copyright infringing activities. The paper is also legal to possess, as it, too, is not a tool used solely for copyright infringing activities. They have multiple uses, “representations.”
In fact, the pen and paper can be combined, like two different files in the OFF System, to produce another representation – ink on paper, which may be a copyrighted image. Or, they can be combined to be an image that is wholly unique and copyrighted to yourself. Almost any design imaginable can be derived from the pen and paper combination; thus, if you were to possess both the pen and the paper simultaneously, there is no possible way someone could say that you are trying to infringe upon their copyright, because what you possess has multiple uses, and only a fraction of those uses may be for copyright infringing. They would, in essence, have to “catch you in the act” of drawing that copyrighted fanart.
The OFF System does something similar to this, except digitally – in the OFF System, there is no difference between the pen and the paper. They are interchangeable; freely intermixing. By themselves, files are random gibberish. Files only have meanings in context to other files in the OFF System, and when the context changes, so do the meanings of a file. Any file can be anything.
Are you anarchists?
We don’t want to do anything as extreme as destroying the government or anything. We just want to cut off some gangrene-infested bits of the copyright industry. What better way than a technical revolution to spur innovation?
Anything destroyed as a side effect of the technology employed within the OFF System is entirely accidental. In fact, if you think you’re going to destroy an industry or someone’s way of life, don’t. That would be terribly rude!
Why can't peers browse my URLs?
Most likely, you are behind a NAT or firewall. You need to allow communications on port 23403 (by default). Most routers should have an easy-to-use interface that allows you to add such a port forwarding rule.
For more information on configure your router see: Portforward.com
Why are there no results for <insert some artist here> in OFF?
Most likely because they havent shared their music. If you are an artist, and would like to make your content accessible through OFF, see the Getting Started section.
I really like OFF, how can I help?
There are two main ways you can help. Either by developing, or testing the existing test releases. For more details, come to irc.p2pchat.net #thebighack
I am running the client, have stored a file, now how do I make it available to people I actually know?
[witty, helpful answer goes here]
Why are there three Store types in the menu?
Well, actually there are four!
- Store
This the basic method of inserting files into OFF. It creates new blocks in the local blockcache directory and produces a URL which is then visible to searches (unless you prevent this with trust and protection settings). The URL can also be pasted into a webpage/email/chatroom etc for others to paste into their clients.
- Concatenated Store
Since OFF blocks are always 128k, those produced from filestreams less than 128k in length are padded with random numbers. If you store a lot of small files (e.g. the html files making up a webpage) you can save this overhead by performing a single concatenated store on all of them. The individual file streams are then "stacked up" into a single stream which is stored in the normal way. The overhead saving of a concatenated store is negligible for files larger than a Meg or so.
- Targetted Store
For a normal insert, randomisers (the blocks the file stream is xored with) are chosen at random from the entire local blockcache. Targetted store allows you to choose a number of existing inserts from which the randomisers for the new insert will be chosen. For example, if you want to store an album of your own CC music you might wish to target the insert of each song to the inserts of the previous songs - in this way a person downloading one of your songs will already have many of the blocks needed for the other songs should they choose to download those as well. (Later this process may be simplified for several inserts via a "Chained Store" or some similar jargon-laden term.)
- Distributed Store - Still in testing
Each block in OFF tries to make it's way "home" to a node that the DHT determines it should live on, so that nodes looking for that block will know where to find it. At present this process takes place as requests for a block are made - first to it's home node, which then begins to seek that block itself. In a distributed store the new blocks will be sent in the direction of home as they are created which will greatly speed up the process of correctly locating the blocks within the DHT. When distributed store is deemed reliable enough, it will become the default insert method with the current basic Store becoming "Local Store" or somesuch.
I want to store <something> with some friends, can you walk me through the steps?
You may want to check out the Getting Started section of our wiki.
