Editing Ends and Means (section)

===The Five Freedoms===
The idea of [[#Material_Peer-to-peer|material peer-to-peer]] captures this notion, but it does little to explain its far-reaching and appreciable benefits. We summarize these benefits in what we call the [[Free network definition|five freedoms]]: [[access]], [[transmission]], [[storage]], [[authentication]], and [[consignment]].

====Access====
The first freedom is access - In a Free Network, constituents would pay only the actual cost of owning and operating their share of the network. Buy and power a FreedomNode, and you become part of the Free Network - contribute to your local co-op, and make the economies of scale work to your benefit. Compare this to today's environment, where network 'consumers' pay the costs of access, plus a hefty margin, in order to lease a line that is owned by a corporation.

====Transmission====
The second freedom is transmission - this is the ability to send bits from peer-to-peer without the prospect of interference, interception, or censorship. The Free Network achieves this aim through the use of cryptographic best practices, and by eliminating the network chokepoints where packet inspection is likely to occur.

====Storage====
The third freedom is storage - the FreedomBox allows people to run their own network services, such as social networking, telephony, and web hosting, and thereby enables them to maintain posession of those bits. Due to the fact that the FreedomBox is in the posession of its owner, gaining access to its contents would require a warrant or subpoena. This is not the case in the current network environment, where bits pertaining to our private lives are scattered and held in various data centers around the world.

====Authentication====
The fourth freedom is authentication - people ought to be able to maintian an identity that is verified as authentic by others. This technology is called a 'Web of Trust,' and is built into the freedom-enabling software stack at a low level. Just as important, however, as the ability to present a verified identity, is the ability to present a pseudonym, or to remain anonymous entirely. The Free Network will make the authentication spectrum easily intelligible to its constituents, and clearly indicate whether a given session is onymous, pseudonymous, or anonymous.

====Consignment====
The fifth and final freedom is consignment - the ability to perform exacting mechanisms of access control. In large part, this is about making it easy to see and manipulate individual privacy settings, yet it is also contingent upon storing one's data locally. When people own their own data, and are able to decide exactly who can access it, bit consignment becomes a willing, rather than unwitting action.