Hostile Environments

Places where Freenet may not be welcome. Either Freenet is illegal as such, or is attacked or blocked by the local forces of censorship. Amongst others:

China - blocked Freenet 0.5 in 2005; keyword has been blocked for many years
Iran∞ - rumours that Iran has successfully blocked Tor; please substantiate with links
France∞ (!!) - thanks to the DADVSI∞ it may be illegal to run or develop Freenet in France. Any input clarifying this would be appreciated!
UK∞ (!!) - ISPs may be responsible for blocking peer to peer as early as 2009 according to recent press reports.
EU∞ (!!) - Under IPRED2∞, if it passes, Freenet may be illegal as "aiding and abetting the intentional infringement of copyright [ or trademarks ] on a commercial scale".

See the stego page for discussion on how to get Freenet working in such places.

Many people, including Toad, regard getting Freenet to work usefully in hostile environments as the fundamental goal in building Freenet. In 2005 he threatened to quit if the harvesting vulnerability, which makes it possible to block Freenet very cheaply at a national firewall, was not closed. Fortunately (?) Oskar came up with an algorithm that enabled the creation of the Darknet.