Theres terra byte upon terra byte of unused hard drive space on the internet. This could all be harnessed!
If a user could select, much as he does with a recycle bin, the amount of space to be dedicated to free space.
For instance, I would want 20% of my unused space to be available for all.
When I started to use my space up, and files needed to be moved, they would move automatically. They would find another machine which could hold the data.
Essentially this is the idea of the "dynamic link" which M$ didn't put into Win95 (but was going to). If the pointer, or reference to the data is notified when the data moves, everyone is happy.
This looks especially appealing when relized how much "grey area" data could exist on such virtual networks.
Another advantage of this automatic storage is that the machine owners could no presumably be liable for the information held there. Every computer would be a "service provider".
Private data could be stored on such a network, encrypted. Also "underground data" (supressed and repressed information) could be disimenated safely. Access would be limited by the description or key distribution (if encrypted).
