ICANN Alternative: Peter Sunde unveils the P2P DNS project

A previous spokesman of The Pirate Bay has launched an appeal for the development of an alternative DNS system to that proposed by ICANN, with the proposed solution based on the P2P technology.

The United States has announced that they are continuing their In Our Sites operation which has already led to the closure of 82 web sites. A proposed law titled the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) is also currently being debated, with this aiming to give the US government the power to close web sites suspected of hosting illegal content. For sites located outside of the US’ jurisdiction, American ISP’s will receive an order to redirect their client’s traffic.

It is in this context that Peter Sunde, notably known as the The Pirate Bay’s spokesman, has launched a call to arms by unveiling the P2P DNS project. This project has the aim of deploying a new DNS system which provides an alternative to that proposed by ICANN: "the heart of DNS problems aren’t with ICANN. It’s with the governments and companies which can control ICANN. The system is centralised."

The Domain Name System is the technology which provides an association between an IP address and domain name. DNS management is today under the control of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), a not for profit organisation who Peter Sunde and other members involved in P2P DNS no longer trust.

P2P DNS (also called Dot-P2P) is looking to implement a new, alternative root DNS server followed by a distributed DNS system which uses the P2P technology as its base. Peter Sunde states on his P2P DNS blog that he wants a "free DNS system, decentralised and open". "We want an uncensored Internet! Having a centralised system which controls our information requests is unacceptable". He uses this forum as a meeting place for experts in the field, allowing them to provide their views on the subject.

On the Dot-P2P wiki, greater details of the plan have been provided. The idea is to call on a top level .p2p domain. The system will be distributed by users via the installation of an application based on the BitTorrent protocol. The transmission of data would also be signed.

The project, which states that they want to reinvent the wheel, is still rather large in nature. We will have to see if it takes off in the long term, but it is certainly gaining in interest.