Well, there’s no searching capability like there is with Kazaa, so it’s closer to an internet within an internet.
It works like an encrypted, anonymous, distributed database. Unlike a web site, you don’t access a piece of information on Freenet by telling your browser where to look for it. Each chunk of data is identified by a key–basically a hash of the data–and each Freenet node uses a complicated routing algorithm to pass requests along to other nodes that are likely to have data with keys like the ones it’s looking for.
There are a few types of keys. Some are simply a hash of the data; some can also be used to prove that the data was inserted by a certain person - i.e. that versions 1 and 2 of a certain freesite came from the same author. The human-readable keys that you enter into your browser are used to encrypt the data, but these are not the same keys that Freenet nodes use internally to keep track of the chunks, which is why you can’t always know what your node is storing: the chunks are encrypted with keys that you don’t have unless you’ve been looking them up yourself.
The easiest way to publish something on Freenet is to write an HTML file, insert it into Freenet, and share the key with your friends. This is a “freesite” - a web site on Freenet. To access a freesite, you start your browser, point it at the web server built into your Freenet node, and type in the key. There are also programs that access the node directly, like Frost, which is a Freenet based message board program (sort of an anonymous Usenet) that doesn’t require a browser at all.
Of course. In the aforementioned “countries were possessing a copy of the New York Times or The Telegraph can get you sent to the gulag”, those are illegal activities too.
The folks who rule those countries think it’s appropriate to limit freedom of speech in order to keep people from reading the Great Satan’s newspapers; people here may think it’s appropriate to limit freedom of speech in order to keep people from trading warez, movies, music, or various types of pornography.
Freenet will offend anyone who wants to restrict speech, because it’s about providing absolute freedom of speech - you can post whatever you want, and no one can take it down or trace it back to you. And that’s the way it has to be. Any system that’s strong enough to get around bans on political speech or accurate journalism must also be strong enough to get around copyright and obscenity laws.
So if you’re bothered that too much of the content on Freenet violates the laws in your country, or offends you, or is kooky and boring, then insert the kind of content you’d prefer to see, and hope it becomes popular enough to displace the content you don’t like.