said by TOPDAWG:I think it's more of a favor to the RIAA and MPAA myself.
That may very well be the case, ("save the children" argument turned into copyright protection/enforcement for the RIAA and MPAA), however, the issue here becomes censorship, enforcement, and relative control of a resource.
The subscribers of those ISPs that recently (or somewhat recently in AOLs case) had their alt.binaries.* hierarchy removed now either can go to a 3rd party service, or less likely, select another broadband provider in their area.
The question now becomes what is next? I'm not advocating the use of Usenet for anything illegal, but a sweeping removal of the entire alt.binaries.* groups removes good and bad. Using a rocket to kill a mosquito, if I may loosely borrow that philosophy for a second.
So, what's the next bunch of groups to go? Rec.music.*? Alt.politics.*?
Pop open your news reader and filter the alt.binaries.* hierarchy and see just exactly how many valid, legal groups are now restricted. Granted, they may be in the minority if you want to take all of the sex groups out of the argument, but none the less, they are there.
How long before third-party news providers are forced/coerced to limit newsgroups?