Unlike traditional darknets, which were confined only to select friends and trusted associates, a new concept changes the need for such privacy. Brightnets, in contrast, are a distributed system where nobody breaks the law, so nobody needs to hide away.

An example of such a system (possibly the first), is a system called OFF, or the owner-free file system. (http://offsystem.sourceforge.net). Although the system is under heavy development, the concept is proven to work.

How does it work? Each client shares a series of 128kb "blocks", which are files filled with randomly chosen bits. These blocks are randomized when given a source file to share in the OFF system. Without the instructions to assemble these blocks, they are useless. Therefore, to download a file, one needs a special URL, similar to an ed2k URL, or a gnutella magnet URL. Every user sharing files on the network will create a unique URL for each file he is sharing.

So what does this all accomplish? Most importantly, the nodes on the network sharing bandwidth CANNOT be held responsible for copyright infringement, because they are not sharing copyrighted works. Somebody could argue that people sharing files on the OFF network are breaking the law when uploading blocks used to assemble copyrighted works, but this argument has no basis. Why? Because the blocks being shared do not in any way represent the original copyrighted work in question.

The system works, but as I mentioned above, is still under development and in heavy testing stages. The project only currently has one developer, and in order to be sustained and improved needs additional talented and competent C++ developers. If you would like to contribute, or have a question or suggestion, head on over to irc.p2pchat.net, #thebighack

All beta testers are welcome, and the latest test releases of the client can be downloaded from http://offsystem.sourceforge.net/installers/