Can't help but feel that this is an underhand way of smacking down the alt.binaries groups. USENET still generates a whole lot of warez, movies, music before they make it to torrent-land. A lot easier to cut them off than to keep Demonoid or Piratebay quiet for long.
But whatever the motivation, this is a blatant attack on free speech and a further move towards a penned in, sewed up, far from neutral, commercially controlled web. Meh and meh.
Child porn is one of those great blanket ideas that you can use to slide through draconian abuses of civil liberty and rally f**ktards to support your moronic cause. Kind of like the vagueries of a "war on terror". Yes people, it's everywhere... and nowhere... So it's in your best interest that we eliminate all potential seeds and sources.
Not saying that child pron doesn't exist - but surely it can be tackled without the interweb eqivalent of Gulf War II?
Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
· 1 year ago
Given their various corporate histories, I'm surprised that Verizon has the most even-handed approach to this.
Certainly, in the case of Sprint and TW, you're absolutely right - this is a horrible restriction of free speech on the web. Given the government subsidized monopolies/duopolies in many parts of America, it's also a restriction that's completely legal and without recourse.
metavalent
· 1 year ago
precisely.
metavalent
· 1 year ago
precisely, michael. still, it's a good thing we don't live in China where they block the entire internet and replace it with a government-approved sub-version, right?
that could *never* happen here in the U.S., right? usenet consists of something like 60,000 groups; many of which have long served as the archives of THE internet from its very inception.
for the sake of 88 "bad" groups, they're shutting down all 60,000 or so.
most people today have no idea that it was the very challenge of better navigating data such as usenet and gopherspace that prompted creation of the mosaic browser and the so-called worldwide web, itself. this development is utterly pathetic, yet wholly typical and even expected.
Bonochromatic
· 1 year ago
Actually I live in China, and had no problem reading this article, or accessing the entire alt* branch of Usenet.
So welcome to the New World Order. As far as I'm concerned, the U.S. now has more draconian censorship than China. Huzzah.
Agree with previous commenters - it's a slippery slope and it's not about child porn; it's about capitalizing on ignorance and a hot-button topic to push through censorship aimed at ending copyright infringement.
Perhaps, since one can use Google to find child porn, that should be banned as well?
Matt
· 1 year ago
Yikes...
If they are going to be allowed to mitigate the footprint of USENET then what does this mean for HTTP? They are actually shooting for the Web, and using USENET as target practice.
Tina
· 1 year ago
Hmm. BBC blithely reports this as "US net firms to block child porn". Then I find out they're shutting down this huge chunk of USENET. The mainstream media has no clue, their headlines make it all sound so simple. It's like chopping off the hands of millions so a certain few hundred won't strangle anyone. And I doubt it will stop the proliferation of child porn in any case.
Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
· 1 year ago
I almost didn't investigate the story due to the non-story nature of MSM coverage.. Interestingly, Fox News briefly tackled this angle of it, though their lack of followup is what inspired me to call all the the telecoms involved and write it up.
Unfortunately, due to the relative unknown status of USENET these days, this will probably pass on unnoticed by most folks.
Steven Hodson
· 1 year ago
They might be going after the service providers now but with success how long will it be as I pointed out in a post today (http://www.winextra.com/2008/06/10/strong-armin...) before they go after the 3rd party USENET providers.
Rxtr
· 1 year ago
Welcome to the Slippery Slope, folks. How long before they use Child Porn as a reason to censor the entire internet? (And no, I do not condone child porn.) Shutting down Usenet is an absurd way to fight pedophilia. Chairman Mao would be proud.
David Jaeger
· 1 year ago
Very sad...
David Linus
· 1 year ago
My feeling is that although the crimes should be addressed, and precautions should be taken, the outright removal of ALL newsgroups seems entirely unfair. There are plenty of newsgroups that are completely legitimate. Microsoft, Apple, Google and even our Government all have newsgroup relations. TO kill this access to information seems a great deal overboard. FOr me, this was the final straw. TWC was only kept around as my ISP because of Usenet access. Without this, I am leaving. I joined www.newsdemon.com and they're actually better than any usenet access that Ive had with an ISP, or with any other Usenet provider for that matter. Now the mission is to find another ISP that has my interest in mind rather than one that takes advantage of a situation in order to cut costs on bandwidth. D. Linus
Once you have adapted to the possibilities of this way to "solve" problems you will see quite a lot of new approaches at all our major problems: The end of sex-offenders by just completely prohibiting sexual activity. What use is it anyway? The end of the worldwide starvation by just bombing all "third world"-countries..
Dan X
· 1 year ago
"Verizon, on the other hand, is blocking on a case by case basis known hangouts for purveyors of child pornography, as they “recognize the value of newsgroups to folks other than child pornographers†and warez traffickers."
hum. It's now 24 June and Verizon has dumped the WHOLE alt tree.
Can you get another update? Thx.
Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
· 1 year ago
Send me an email - <mark @mashable.com> - I'd like to follow up on this.</mark>
DLW
· 1 year ago
OH C'Mon!!! Child porn? They didn't pull usenet because of child porn...the pulled it because of copywrite violations and warez trading. Its all about greed not the welfare of children.
How about this Cuomo? How about we outlaw reproduction? No kids, no child porn!!! You greedy media purveyors have the lock on producing crap media anyway.
DOUBLE PLONK UNGOOD!
NEON JAVA
· 1 year ago
:::Yawn:::
Usenet is old school, anyway, so it's time overdue for the users to come out of their 'net caves and join the mainstream. As for those among them who've been up to no good in their caves, do whatever it takes to shine the bright light of day on their abuses. *ANY* web community, system, or "social network" that fails to set and hold reasonable standards and/or TOU should remember the internet is a public sphere.
Oldskooler
· 1 year ago
Yes. Welcome to 1984. And more. Usenet is dying a slow death and freedom of speeck is being rendered a long goodbye.
Sad.
Move now!!!!!!!!!! While you still can. LEAVE!!!!!!!
viviane
· 1 year ago
quero fazer amontagem da foto
jorge jackson
· 1 year ago
keria fazer uma montagem da minha foto com minha namorada.
Anon
· 1 year ago
Verizon is now reporting that they are restricting access to the self-proclaimed "Big 8" which includes ONLY: comp.*, misc.*, news.*, rec.*, sci.*, soc.*, talk.*, and humanities.*.
Aurora Brown
· 1 year ago
@ Michael, exactly. This is a terrible assault on free speech and by extension, freedom of information. Imho, punishing everyone for the bad behavior of a few is completely unnecessary. If they picked their brains up off the floor, they'd come up with a better solution. They're just being lazy and taking the easy way out. Verizon is a little better, but we who have Time Warner (and by virtue of our area, can't get anything else) are screwed.
Adam
· 1 year ago
So far AT&T hasn't joined in on the Usenet banning party, so I'm safe.
But honestly, I subscribe to comp.lang.python from Google Groups. If that went down, there goes the help and support that I get from the Python community.
Also, the child porn sharers will just find another venue to share their material. They will probably go to torrents, which will be blocked. Then to forums, that will be blocked. Eventually if they truly want to eliminate child porn they would have to shut down the internet.
Of course then the perpetrators will then discover U.S. Mail and get a huge mailing list, so we will have to shut that down too. Honestly, the possibilities are endless.
poontime
· 1 year ago
try pacific bell
pornexa
· 1 year ago
ATT sucks when it comes to signal. There would be some places where you just can pick up crap
pornexa
· 1 year ago
OK, we know you aren't into porn. But your porn-fiend "friends" can save paper and plastic by feeding their fetishes via this neat, new doohickey called the Interweb. (The rest of us can get our PG-rated magazines, movies, and music online.)
All Comments
But whatever the motivation, this is a blatant attack on free speech and a further move towards a penned in, sewed up, far from neutral, commercially controlled web. Meh and meh.
Child porn is one of those great blanket ideas that you can use to slide through draconian abuses of civil liberty and rally f**ktards to support your moronic cause. Kind of like the vagueries of a "war on terror". Yes people, it's everywhere... and nowhere... So it's in your best interest that we eliminate all potential seeds and sources.
Not saying that child pron doesn't exist - but surely it can be tackled without the interweb eqivalent of Gulf War II?
Certainly, in the case of Sprint and TW, you're absolutely right - this is a horrible restriction of free speech on the web. Given the government subsidized monopolies/duopolies in many parts of America, it's also a restriction that's completely legal and without recourse.
that could *never* happen here in the U.S., right? usenet consists of something like 60,000 groups; many of which have long served as the archives of THE internet from its very inception.
for the sake of 88 "bad" groups, they're shutting down all 60,000 or so.
most people today have no idea that it was the very challenge of better navigating data such as usenet and gopherspace that prompted creation of the mosaic browser and the so-called worldwide web, itself. this development is utterly pathetic, yet wholly typical and even expected.
So welcome to the New World Order. As far as I'm concerned, the U.S. now has more draconian censorship than China. Huzzah.
Agree with previous commenters - it's a slippery slope and it's not about child porn; it's about capitalizing on ignorance and a hot-button topic to push through censorship aimed at ending copyright infringement.
Perhaps, since one can use Google to find child porn, that should be banned as well?
If they are going to be allowed to mitigate the footprint of USENET then what does this mean for HTTP? They are actually shooting for the Web, and using USENET as target practice.
Unfortunately, due to the relative unknown status of USENET these days, this will probably pass on unnoticed by most folks.
FOr me, this was the final straw. TWC was only kept around as my ISP because of Usenet access. Without this, I am leaving. I joined www.newsdemon.com and they're actually better than any usenet access that Ive had with an ISP, or with any other Usenet provider for that matter.
Now the mission is to find another ISP that has my interest in mind rather than one that takes advantage of a situation in order to cut costs on bandwidth.
D. Linus
hum. It's now 24 June and Verizon has dumped the WHOLE alt tree.
Can you get another update? Thx.
How about this Cuomo? How about we outlaw reproduction? No kids, no child porn!!! You greedy media purveyors have the lock on producing
crap media anyway.
DOUBLE PLONK UNGOOD!
Usenet is old school, anyway, so it's time overdue for the users to come out of their 'net caves and join the mainstream. As for those among them who've been up to no good in their caves, do whatever it takes to shine the bright light of day on their abuses. *ANY* web community, system, or "social network" that fails to set and hold reasonable standards and/or TOU should remember the internet is a public sphere.
Sad.
Move now!!!!!!!!!! While you still can. LEAVE!!!!!!!
But honestly, I subscribe to comp.lang.python from Google Groups. If that went down, there goes the help and support that I get from the Python community.
Also, the child porn sharers will just find another venue to share their material. They will probably go to torrents, which will be blocked. Then to forums, that will be blocked. Eventually if they truly want to eliminate child porn they would have to shut down the internet.
Of course then the perpetrators will then discover U.S. Mail and get a huge mailing list, so we will have to shut that down too. Honestly, the possibilities are endless.