Relakks – Don’t do it

Relakks.com is a new service (a Virtual Private Network) for those who want to send information over the Internet with anonymity. The encrypted connection service is fully supported by the Swedish Political ‘Pirate Party‘ – who have been know to support the activity of the Bit Torrent site – Pirate Bay.By producing this darknet for those who don’t want to be tracked, regardless of legal or illegal activity, the impact on culture as a whole is far more disruptive. The users of Relakks will, on the whole be the web savvy youngsters who are actively creating and sharing cool innovation and ideas. Once this is removed from the public domain and shown only through a darknet we are likely to suffer a drought of fresh ideas.

It could be argued that a service like this is driven by the pressure of copyright holders who don’t want their movies and music being shared. By supplying a commercial available darknet

Like Pirate Bay this is an extremely well organised project, they know what they’re doing. Any they will have records on what you do. It’s an incredible amount of trust and freedom for the bargain cost of 5 Euros a month.

Adding any layer of encryption is a kin to Digital Rights Management system, except now, sub cultures can reverse the effect and lock out media owners.

If the darknet is the answer to online freedom, then the main losers will not be those who demand copyright be upheld and respected, but everyone who thrives on a rich and varied culture of sharing.

This article was first published on openbusiness.cc
The “Relakks – Don’t do it” article is part of wider research available here.