Airwolf7
Premium
join:2004-12-12
Franklin, KY
 ·AT&T Southeast
| reply to TheDarkRide
Re: Is AT&T removing alt.* newsgroups
said by TheDarkRide  :This thread probably could stand to be locked. At this point everybody who "gets it" gets it and those who don't (or are just looking for another excuse to bitch and moan about Bell/AT&T SE and their services) won't. Ever. The necessary information and URLs regarding the politically-motivated alt.binaries.* freak-out is available, but I can't see additional posts doing anything but burying that info in an increasingly-dismal SNR. AT&T wasn't the first ISP to bounce alt.binaries.* (or, in fact, alt.*). They won't be the last. If you want to stand up and make a political statement, go do it in an appropriate forum. There's really no actual support available for this "problem" because a) the deed's already been done (by AT&T _and_ others), and b) it's not a problem. From the AT&T Southeast Forum FAQ: » AT&T Southeast Forum FAQThe DSLReports AT&T Southeast Forum is a customer information resource for the AT&T Southeast DSL Internet service. It's a place where users of the AT&T Southeast service can ask questions, share ideas, and exchange and gather information, but anyone is welcome in the forum. I think the "information resource" ship has long since sailed as far as this topic goes. Well that's the theory but in practice it goes something like this.
Zoder posted this as a topic of interest to FastAccess DSL users.
This is a controversial subject to some users and they feel a need to post their views on the subject and vent their frustrations.
Some users will feel the need to debate the subject amongst themselves.
Interspersed amongst these posts will be nuggets of useful information about the topic.
If things get out of hand the moderators will take care of things, but they don't seem to rule this forum with an Iron Fist because most users here have thick skins and things will take care of itself without intervention.
Sooner or later people will have said what they had to say and people will lose interest in the topic and it will work its way down the list and will end up not being on the front page.
People who are not interested or are no longer interested in this topic will not click on it and for sure will not reply to it.
By replying back to this topic you are not acting in your own self interests to see this topic die. You are interrupting the nature death stages of this topic.
If the continuation of this topic is a great bother to you then you are welcome to "Hey Mod" it and request it be locked. If the moderators deem it to be in the best interests of the forum to do so then they will.
You are more then welcome not to click on this topic and read it if it disturbs you so much and are advised to not reply to it bringing it back up to the top of the list if you wish to see it die due to natural causes.
--
.
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!"
"Those who beat swords into plowshares usually end up plowing for those who don't."
Quotes by Benjamin Franklin. |
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graysonf
Premium,MVM
join:1999-07-16
Fort Lauderdale, FL | Ding ding ding.......Bingo. Well said, thank you. |
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Rebellious
join:2008-05-28 | reply to Zoder
Yeah it looks like they're deleting some newsgroups. Even Google took newsgroups out of their front search page, newsgroups are free (as in freedom from censorship) and Google et al want total control of the internet. |
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Albert71292
join:2004-10-31
West Monroe, LA
·AT&T Southeast
| reply to Zoder
Have to admit I'm getting a kick out of the complaints on the bellsouth.net.support.news-service group. Sure, I use the Usenet service supplied with my DSL, but only read the text groups. No interest in the others. Apparently the only three "alt" groups I subscribe to are unaffected (as of now) by this change: "alt.fan.goons", "alt.fan.monty-python", and "alt.fan.letterman". The only four other groups I subscribe to on their servers are the BellSouth oriented groups.
I also subscribe to groups on other servers, but they are all text also(mainly, except maybe the last one, which has the occasional screenshot)"
news.grc.com
msnews.microsoft.com
news.mozilla.org
cnews.corel.com
Guess I'm getting a "kick out of the complaints", because I know, deep down, most of the people complaining are downloading movies, music, etc, and are upset they will no longer get their "free fix", and will make up any excuse to appear that they aren't.
The only regular media downloading I do is podcasts, from Leo Laporte, Revision3, and Cranky Geeks.
I know my opinion isn't going to be popular here, but I've never been one to deal in popularity... |
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NormanS
Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
·Pacific Bell - SBC
| reply to Mad as Hell
said by Mad as Hell :
I don't like child pornographers and I would like to see all of them rotting is jail. But censoring the usenet as a means of stopping child porn is not the way to go. How about tracking down and putting awy the people who post this crap.
Blocking all of the Alt.bin* newgroups is like closing the post office because someone might send a pornographic picture of a child through the mail.
If you believe the corporate propaganda; but AT&T is not "kowtowing" to Andrew Cuomo, it is using the NYAG as a convenient excuse to do what they have long wanted to do.
Keeping in mind that before AT&T bought Bellsouth, SBC bought AT&T, then re-branded from SBC to AT&T, perhaps this ancient link will prove revealing:
»newsgroups.news.prodigy.net/sbcminifaq.html
Also keep in mind that SBC bought Prodigy, along with two Baby Bells.
It isn't about child porn, it is about not wanting the headache of running NNTP servers carrying megafiles of binary data.
--
Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum |
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JRBlizz
@aaitsc.net | reply to Zoder
Does anyone know of other "free" news groups? I don't want to pay for them, as I feel it should be part of my ATT plan that I'm paying for already. |
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graysonf
Premium,MVM
join:1999-07-16
Fort Lauderdale, FL
| There is no longer any such thing as a free news server that carries alt.binaries.* newsgroups and also had anything that resembles decent completion of multipart binary posts.
If you want alt.binaries.* groups, you are going to have to spend some money. The question is how little or how much. |
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nntp user
@sbcglobal.net | reply to Zoder
Yes, AT&T removed all Alt.Binaries |
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Squeezer
join:2002-01-03
Byram, MS | reply to Zoder
has anyone thought of emailling/calling at&t's board of directors and complaining? |
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FAQFixer
Premium
join:2004-06-28
Powder Springs, GA
| said by Squeezer :has anyone thought of emailling/calling at&t's board of directors and complaining? Yeah, I say do it. You can say you represent the .062% of customers that actually use newsgroups. You could go on to explain that you are part of the less than 5% of the binary newsgroup users who don't use it to illegally download copyrighted material...let alone child porn. You could even hit home the point that binary newsgroup users on average consume far, far, far more bandwidth than typical consumers. I probably wouldn't even mention the huge peering bandwidth though...that might push them to not rethink the decision.
Let us know how it goes.
/sarcasm |
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NetFixer
Freedom is NOT Free
Premium
join:2004-06-24
Murfreesboro, TN
 ·Vonage
·AT&T Southeast
 ·Cingular Wireless
·AT&T CallVantage
| reply to Squeezer
said by Squeezer :has anyone thought of emailling/calling at&t's board of directors and complaining? That is an excellent idea. Make sure that you ask to speak to Ernestine, she is the executive assistant for customer complaints.
--
We can never have enough of nature.
We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander.
Test your firewall. |
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Claybraker
join:2002-04-13
none
| reply to FAQFixer
said by FAQFixer :You can say you represent the .062% of customers that actually use newsgroups. Woot!!
Used to think it was really kewl to be in the upper 1% on standardized tests, but the upper .062% of net users? Subscribe!1!! |
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mikey12345
@bellsouth.net | reply to Zoder
Not only are the removing some newsgroups, they are going to start charging in advance for phone service. Just received the notice. So look for two bills soon for the same month. |
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uhhhright
| Please tell me how they would charge in advance for phone service? It's not a flat rate with all customers. Factor in per use call return and LD/collect calls. How would that be applied? To the next months bill? What's the point? I'll believe that when I see it.
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NetFixer
Freedom is NOT Free
Premium
join:2004-06-24
Murfreesboro, TN
·Vonage
·AT&T Southeast
·Cingular Wireless
·AT&T CallVantage
1 edit | said by uhhhright :
Please tell me how they would charge in advance for phone service? It's not a flat rate with all customers. Factor in per use call return and LD/collect calls. How would that be applied? To the next months bill? What's the point? I'll believe that when I see it.
It would work the same way it has always worked for cell phone service. The base monthly fee is paid in advance, but any extra charges can be billed 30-90 days later.
--
We can never have enough of nature.
We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander.
Test your firewall. |
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Mizzat
Will post for thumbs
Premium
join:2003-05-03
Atlanta, GA
·AT&T Southeast
| reply to mikey12345
said by mikey12345 :
Not only are the removing some newsgroups, they are going to start charging in advance for phone service. Just received the notice. So look for two bills soon for the same month.
Start? It has been like that for a long time, I thought. You always pay a month ahead for phone service. |
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NetFixer
Freedom is NOT Free
Premium
join:2004-06-24
Murfreesboro, TN
·Vonage
·AT&T Southeast
·Cingular Wireless
·AT&T CallVantage
1 edit | said by Mizzat :Start? It has been like that for a long time, I thought. You always pay a month ahead for phone service. That was my thought too, but it has been several years since I had POTS service, so I could not be sure. I do know that my AT&T Wireless and AT&T CallVantage accounts are paid in advance.
--
We can never have enough of nature.
We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander.
Test your firewall. |
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leaving ATT
@sbcglobal.net
| reply to graysonf
Just read this.
In its ruling Tuesday, the federal appeals court concluded that the Child Online Protection Act is unconstitutionally overly broad and vague. The court also ruled that the law violates the First Amendment because filtering technologies and other parental control tools offer a less restrictive way to protect children from inappropriate content online. |
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NormanS
Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
·Pacific Bell - SBC
| Except that Andrew Cuomo isn't trying to protect children from access to salacious content, he is trying to prevent everybody else from accessing content involving underage participants in salacious activity. The latter is, in most jurisdictions, a criminal act (the depiction of underage participants engaged in salacious activity).
It is still overly broad, IMHO, to chop all binary groups when so few were problematic. But I don't think the NYAG cares that the ISPs are being overly broad, as long as they include his pet newsgroups in the access denied list.
--
Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum |
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FAQFixer
Premium
join:2004-06-28
Powder Springs, GA
| reply to leaving ATT
said by leaving ATT :
Just read this.
In its ruling Tuesday, the federal appeals court concluded that the Child Online Protection Act is unconstitutionally overly broad and vague. The court also ruled that the law violates the First Amendment because filtering technologies and other parental control tools offer a less restrictive way to protect children from inappropriate content online.
The best way to protect your company is to not offer the service at all. You don't worry about any law or court cases because they don't apply to you. Pretty smart huh? |
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