I know it isn’t specific to just Linux but I use Linux anyway so my question is,

Is there a way you could use a VPN without them knowing that? Or if they outlaw them is it really just game over?

If they made VPNs illegal I suppose stuff like TOR would follow except TOR is partly funded by the US state department and the US is one of my countries closest allies (one of the five eyes). So surely they wouldn’t shut down something the US funds directly… Would they?

I’ve read very very little about Gemini and other protocols like Gopher, would this be the way forward if they do this? And is that even remotely close to the security and potential anonymity you would receive from a VPN?

  • TMP_NKcYUEoM7kXg4qYe@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    Banning VPNs is on the list of braindead government restrictions up there with banning encryption. The latter is basically a ban on math, just like in that book where 2+2 is sometimes 3, sometimes 5.

    • Random Dent@lemmy.ml
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      5 hours ago

      As a person from the UK, I am fully expecting them to implement this in the next year or two, because ruining the internet seems to be the government’s top priority rather than say, fixing the economy or preventing Reform from taking over for some fucking reason.

    • 0x0@lemmy.zip
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      7 hours ago

      just like in that book where 2+2 is sometimes 3, sometimes 5.

      You mean book1.xls?

    • TypFaffke@feddit.org
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      11 hours ago

      Aren’t they both the same thing? A VPN is just applied encryption.

      You’re right though, banning encryption is a pipe dream. Encrypted data is not distinguishable from random noise. So you’re not allowing me to send around random numbers now?

    • BD89@lemmy.sdf.orgOP
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      11 hours ago

      Yes but they’ve done this before in countries like US. They went after the T Shirt producers printing the DeCSS on them and recently the whole tornado cash fiasco where they tried to make smart contracts illegal (although this was overturned).

      Granted though I think DeCSS contained proprietary code so its a little different but unfortunately I view most governmental control and censorship to be braindead but I still fear they will do it.

      They would have exemptions for corporate VPNs and encryption and for members of parliament and all that of course, but I could absolutely see them trying to fuck us all sooner rather than later.

      I hope I’m just paranoid.

      • Beej Jorgensen@lemmy.sdf.org
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        6 hours ago

        Off topic, but with DeCSS the problem wasn’t that it was proprietary or a trade secret. Once the algorithm got out, it was out. Since it had been a trade secret, there was no patent protection on it.

        However, some laws and treaties prohibit distributing code that circumvents copy protection schemes, and this is where they ran into trouble.

        And that’s why they were all those songs and t-shirts and other free speech items made with the DeCSS algorithm on them. Eventually the cases were dropped.