Psiphon Now Available For Download

eldavojohn writes "Project Psiphon has been released for public download under the GPL. CNN has coverage of the Canadian research project that 'works by first allowing a person in a country like Canada that does not censor Internet content to set up a user name and a password for a person in a country that does — China, for example.' While this idea is certainly nothing new to Slashdot, the fact that software like Psiphon is becoming publicly available is interesting. For a quick simplified 'How it works,' Psiphon has a Flash demonstration." Not a moment too soon, apparently. China is moving to assign IDs to bloggers, to register their real identities and track their statements online.

Re:I can't believe...

[PingSpike]

The article says the data between the proxy and user is encrypted. I think the idea is there is no single point of failure. Each user has one 'contact' in the 'free' country. Even if the proxy is identified and blocked you're only cutting off one user. Whereas usually you block the servers at the source, stopping everyone from seeing it.

Re:Vapor Ware

[itlurksbeneath]

From their web site:

When will psiphon be released?

psiphon software will be released on December 1st, 2006, with subsequent releases to be provided as new features are added over time.

Two things come to mind:

1. December 1st isn't over yet
2. Maybe they haven't updated the web site yet

Re:Yeah...

[LindseyJ]

I think you vastly underestimate the actual reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union.

(Here's a hint: It had very little to do with "folks 'hiding' behind fax machines, getting the word out.")

Re:Who is helping the Chinese government censor?

[massivefoot]

Regrettably, given the influence of business in modern government, this is unlikely to happen any time soon. The best we can do is attempt to ensure that we are responsible for as little money as possible making its way to such countries. Need to us AOL messenger service? Use a third party programme to avoid any advertising provided by AOL. Need software made by any of the above? Use an open source alternative. Or a pirated version. It's more moral than giving any money to then.