[alphabeater]

I mean unless you have a low bandwidth connection I really don't see much advantage in having this caching mechanism employed. I just really, really like to KNOW what my computer is doing at ALL TIMES and I don't like the idea of it 'thinking for its self' no matter how intelligent or well programmed the intent...also disturbing is the fact that if it can do this...why would it also not be possible for it to other unwanted activity behind 'our backs'?

actually, i found it slightly disconcerting when i thought of it.. that's why i made sure to say that it'd be completely optional whether the program did this for you or not - i don't want anything happening behind my back either.

So you see there are two main advantages to a proxy-server:

a)relative anonymity (not always completely unknown...depends on the proxy-server being used)

and

b)faster downloading due to cached content.

this is a great idea, which kazaa already does with search results but not the files themselves as far as i know. essentially, supernodes with lots of bandwidth could be designated as the proxy supernodes, which would act as download proxies for other peers who desired anonymity while caching content to speed up downloads.

i'll let someone else answer about newsgroup servers as i'm not really familiar with them, but regarding an msn-messenger style app this could work well. each user could have an identity (i prefer dns to email address, just because it's easier to authenticate), and then a msn-style, decentralised im program could be set up using these identities where each peer has the capability to be a normal im node, a p2p filesharing node or a p2p caching proxy supernode. this would have huge benefits for the community on the network, as long as enough people with fast connections were willing to run proxy supernodes downloads could be sped up considerably. although i realise that this approach sacrificies most of the gains in full-time anonymity, there could still be a 'download anonymously via supernode proxies' option which would hide your dns to the uploader (replacing it with 'anon via <proxy's dns>'), for when anonymity is desirable.

Seems like most ISP's know that filesharing is the driving force behind the desire for broadband...why not make it profitable for everyone and solve this mess once and for all.

i totally agree, but you just know the media would report any measure like this as 'pirates forcing up the cost of broadband internet connection' (or something), and that it'd be a thoroughly unpopular move with the riaa/mpaa. if they were sensible, they'd have embraced p2p as a way of not needing to pay radio stations to promote their songs any more, but instead they went the way of litigation. the only reason i can think of is that they're attached to their current business model and desperately want to keep it alive.

until content providers and isps do work together to find a way that p2p distribution can be profitable for everyone, 'underground' p2p networks are just going to get stronger and stronger.