Fergus Cassidy

Numbers game

GEORGE W BUSH didn't want to hear from the rest of the world last week. His website (www.GeorgeW Bush.com) was only accessible from within the US and parts of Canada. From any other location visitors were welcomed with 'Access Denied'.

All sorts of reasons were put forward as to why, including some well worn conspiracy theories. At the time of writing, a spokesperson for the site would only say that there were "security reasons".

Needless to say, I wasn't going to be satisfied unless I found a way in which, after a bit of fiddling about in the browser bowels and a helping hand from Saint Google, I managed to do.

Basically, I 'tricked' the server hosting W's site into believing I was connecting from within the US. If you have half a notion of what you're doing it's not that difficult. So why bother blocking access in the first place?

Because they can. Without confirmation regarding why access was denied, the only conclusion that makes semi-sense is that the site was attacked at some stage recently and W's minders aren't taking any chances with site security embarrassment so close to the big day.

The ability to determine where in a world a visitor to a website is coming from is a legacy from how the internet was set up and then opened to commercial traffic. Website addresses are translations for the numbers assigned to them.

In the Sunday Tribune's case, www.tribune.ie is the translation of 159.134.237.34. The naming regimen was designed to make it easier to remember names rather than numbers.

All these numbers are under the control of a global authority and allocations are made on a geographic basis. The world was divided into continental-type regions and then further sub-divided, mainly to internet service providers in each country.

In this aspect, the internet and its numbering system still retains an element of the telephone network and its geographic structure. Very handy for controlling access but a kick in the head for the notion of the internet being a global communications network open to all.

Another incident last week, this time in Australia, reveals how the geographic nature of the internet's numbering system can be very complex and problematic.

Lawyers representing the estate of Margaret Mitchell, author of 'Gone With the Wind' (GWTW), are demanding that the Project Gutenberg website desist immediately from infringing on their client's copyright.

Project Gutenberg is a literary archive which aims to gather and disseminate works which are in the public domain. It's a registered charity and doesn't charge for downloads.

Well, frankly the US lawyers couldn't give a damn because GWTW is still under copyright in the US. It was to have run out in 1999 but none other than former singer Sonny Bono made sure that this won't happen until at least 2029.

So the GWTW lawyers are demanding that the work be removed from the website because US citizens are able to access it and thereby breach US copyright law.

What a crazy situation. In order to comply, Project Gutenberg (or any website) would need to find out the copyright policy for every country in the world and pick the most extreme case as the default. The same applies to libel and defamation. All because it's possible to tell what country visitors are coming from.

This is one of the main reasons why millions of people are turning to file-sharing, also known as peer-to-peer. Software such as BitTorrent has enabled data transfer from computer to computer, bypassing centralised servers and geographic numbering.

Using the net to make phone calls (VoIP) is around the corner and it too is linked to a centralised, geographic numbering system developed by the International Telecommunications Union.

Already there are alternatives cropping up such as Asterisk, an open source project. This software is also based on peer-to-peer technology. P2P is the music industry's enemy number one right now with attempts underway in the US to ban the technology outright. The big telcos and ISPs are probably watching this closely as well.

If P2P technology is outlawed, one of the great potentials of the internet will most definitely be gone with the wind.