The University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab has just release Psiphon, a censorship-defeating program. Like EFF’s Tor, Psiphon uses ordinary users’ computers as re-routers for Web requests, bouncing requests for blocked and censored material to computers outside the censorwall.
The code for psiphon is announced as being released under the GPL, the most common and preferred open/free license, but I couldn’t find a source repository. The download page says that the code is licensed under the “psiphon code license (GPL),” which makes no sense to me. It also contains a lengthy “agreement” that you have to enter into to get at the download that seems a little off-kilter for GPL’ed code. They just launched — maybe they’ll clarify this soon (or take down the notice that this is all under GPL).
What is psiphon?
psiphon is a censorship circumvention solution that allows users to access blocked sites in countries where the Internet is censored. psiphon turns a regular home computer into a personal, encrypted server capable of retrieving and displaying web pages anywhere
What are psiphonodes, psiphonode administrators and psiphonites??
A psiphonode is a psiphon server that is operated by an administrator residing in an uncensored country (this is an integration of ‘psiphon’ and ‘Node’). The psiphonode administrator is responsible for creating and managing user accounts and running the psiphon server. A psiphonite is a psiphon user, residing within a jurisdiction that blocks arbitrary web sites, and utilizes a psiphonode residing in an uncensored jurisdiction.How does psiphon work?
psiphon acts as a “web proxy” for authenticated psiphonites, retrieving requested web pages and displaying them in a user’s browser. psiphon uses a secure, encrypted connection to receive web requests from the psiphonite to the psiphonode who then transports the results back to the psiphonite. There is no connection between the psiphonite and the requested website, as psiphon transparently proxies the request through the psiphonode’s computer allowing the psiphonite to browse blocked websites seamlessly.
(Thanks to everyone who suggested this link!)