Major ISPs dropping Usenet
 

Time-Warner is dropping all newsgroups. Verizon is keeping most of
the Big-8 but is dropping the entire alt.* hierarchy, which includes this
group.

Keep this in mind for future posts, and you may wish to migrate any
existing discussions to a non-alt.* group.

Major ISPs dropping Usenet
 

nospam wrote:
Time-Warner is dropping all newsgroups. Verizon is keeping most of
the Big-8 but is dropping the entire alt.* hierarchy, which includes this
group.

Keep this in mind for future posts, and you may wish to migrate any
existing discussions to a non-alt.* group.



There are free news servers. You don't have to use Google to get here.

news.aioe.org (no registration, limited postings per day)
news.motzarella.org (registration, don't know what the rules are)

I'm using both of those right now. If there is a problem with one,
I switch to the other. And there are other servers around as well,
that I haven't tried.

Discussed in alt.free.newsservers (when the regulars aren't sniping
at one another).

Paul

Major ISPs dropping Usenet
 

"nospam" wrote in message
. ..
Time-Warner is dropping all newsgroups. Verizon is keeping most of
the Big-8 but is dropping the entire alt.* hierarchy, which includes this
group.

Keep this in mind for future posts, and you may wish to migrate any
existing discussions to a non-alt.* group.

Yes, the unwashed masses are sacking the city, the Nero-Geeks are
preoccupied with World of Warcraft, and in the future all information will
be in proprietary ITunes format. I blame CompuServe.

Major ISPs dropping Usenet
 

Anything that creates a speed bump to Usenet can only be good news.
--
It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy
of the rest of mankind.
~ Voltaire

Major ISPs dropping Usenet
 

Bob Fry wrote:

Anything that creates a speed bump to Usenet can only be good news.

Yeah, unfortunately Google doesn't agree.





--
My in-line street skates.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27532210 N04/2565924423/

Currently filtering out most Google Groups posts/branches.

Major ISPs dropping Usenet
 

nospam wrote:

Time-Warner is dropping all newsgroups. Verizon is keeping most of
the Big-8 but is dropping the entire alt.* hierarchy, which includes this
group.

Keep this in mind for future posts, and you may wish to migrate any
existing discussions to a non-alt.* group.



Is Andrew Cuomo really that influential? Or is his holding ISP's
liable to prosecution for kiddie porn just an excuse for them to
create and host web-based, advertisement-laden discussion groups
or special interest groups like this one?

Major ISPs dropping Usenet
 

The articles I read said he had his investigators sign up for i-net service
with various ISPs and they used software to analyze pictures and determine
what is child porn.

When child porn is found, his investigators, posing as customers, would
complain but usually the ISP did nothing.

Cuomo threatened to charge them with false advertising and fraud, so, the
three major ISPs, that he threatened with a lawsuit, decided to drop usenet
or delete major parts of it from their servers. T-W also agreed to install
hardware/software that analyzes packets to determine if something is child
porn.

This raises two other questions:

1. ISPs hold a common carrier status meaning they do not check the contents
of what is posted. In other words, if you owned a phone company, you are
not responsible if two people plan a bank robbery over your phone lines.
Would T-W now lose their common carrier status?

2. It seems analyzing packets violates federal wire tapping laws.

From Cuomo's point of view, it is a way to get name recognition. For people
who trade in child porn, they will find other outlets as needed.

The effect on usenet is, Cuomo is still going after other ISPs, if the 5
major ISPs do not offer access anymore or limited access then it seems there
would be very little activity. Someone here might post a question and there
would be no response or maybe 1 response.

From a historical perspective, if this is the death of usenet, does Cuomo
really want to remembered in the history books as the guy who killed usenet?
His solution is like saying there are so many drug deals and murders in
Miami, we've decided to cut phone service there.

--g

Major ISPs dropping Usenet
 

geoff wrote:


From a historical perspective, if this is the death of usenet, does
Cuomo really want to remembered in the history books as the guy who
killed usenet? His solution is like saying there are so many drug
deals and murders in Miami, we've decided to cut phone service there.

--g

I also wonder if the hands of Hollywood and the music industry are somewhere
behind this. Lets face it, if the .alt groups (or more) get dropped, it will
be doing them a favour.
--
SteveH

Major ISPs dropping Usenet
 

I also wonder if the hands of Hollywood and the music industry are
somewhere behind this. Lets face it, if the .alt groups (or more) get
dropped, it will be doing them a favour.

Once the hardware is in place to monitor packets, it can be extended to look
for music/songs and other things.

Also, the RIAA can now use the same pattern and go after ISPs saying they
found copyrighted material in a newsgroup and when it is not deleted, the
ISPs can be threatened with charges of fraud, etc.

Under the current plan, with three major ISPs dropping usenet, or major
parts of it, this will affect about 50 million people.

--g

Major ISPs dropping Usenet
 

Somewhere on teh intarweb "Paul" typed:
nospam wrote:
Time-Warner is dropping all newsgroups. Verizon is keeping most of
the Big-8 but is dropping the entire alt.* hierarchy, which includes
this group.

Keep this in mind for future posts, and you may wish to migrate any
existing discussions to a non-alt.* group.



There are free news servers. You don't have to use Google to get here.

news.aioe.org (no registration, limited postings per day)
news.motzarella.org (registration, don't know what the rules are)

I'm using both of those right now. If there is a problem with one,
I switch to the other. And there are other servers around as well,
that I haven't tried.

Discussed in alt.free.newsservers (when the regulars aren't sniping
at one another).

Now if only Google would can GoogleGroups we'd get back to a situation such
as existed years ago, when I first found usenet; Only geeks and intelligent
people (for the most part) posting. sigh The good old days.
--
Shaun.

DISCLAIMER: If you find a posting or message from me
offensive, inappropriate, or disruptive, please ignore it.
If you don't know how to ignore a posting, complain to
me and I will be only too happy to demonstrate... ;-)