Absolute must-read in the copyright wars

[screwballl]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Darknet doesn't mean "illegal file sharing;" it means the not-public side of the internet, which includes illegal activity, but also includes paid private activity, and restricted-access activity.

It originally referred to web content that was invisible to search engines, or "out of the spotlight."

It's come to be widely used to refer to filesharing and hacking sites, and by extension, things like "sneakernet"--transfer of files by carrying a data-storage device from one computer to another. (These days, broadband is faster, but not long ago, it was often quicker to drive 20 miles with a zip drive to give someone a Linux boot CD than it was for them to download it.)

That generally falls into private access, not "darknet". There can be illegal file access via private sharing of files with the methods you mentioned but darknet tends to refer to the "dark side of the internet" and does not refer to private portable storage devices since they are not connected to the internet in order to transfer the files to its destination.