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Time Warner Cable To Stop Offering Newsgroup Access
Official announcement to come later in the month....
An internal tipster drops me a line to note that Time Warner Cable/Roadrunner will be eliminating newsgroup access. The newsgroup ax is expected to fall before the end of the month, and my source says that an official announcement should go up on the Roadrunner website sometime around the sixteenth. Roadrunner has actually held on for some time, given many broadband ISPs stopped offering newsgroup access several years ago.
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moonpuppy (banned)
join:2000-08-21
Glen Burnie, MD

moonpuppy (banned)

Member

But will they lower rates?

Of course not.

tiger72
SexaT duorP
Premium Member
join:2001-03-28
Saint Louis, MO

tiger72

Premium Member

Re: But will they lower rates?

yeah, this is my biggest contention. I'm very sad to see TWC's (high quality) usenet access go by the wayside. I'd rather see them go the Comcast route and give me a few gigs of Giganews as a backup, but the free ride is over. Looks like i'll no longer be able to rely on RR as my primary server and i'll just stick to Usenetserver (with an Astraweb backup block account) instead!

esc0
@newskies.net

esc0 to moonpuppy

Anon

to moonpuppy
We need to ask ourselves? (WWJD) => What Would Jesus Do?

TWC you suck. This is why I dropped and I am not looking back.

Luwigie
Premium Member
join:2002-06-06
Franklin, MI

Luwigie

Premium Member

Re: But will they lower rates?

said by esc0 :

We need to ask ourselves? (WWJD) => What Would Jesus Do?
Jesus uses Time Warner?

aggiejy
Premium Member
join:2002-07-10
Wimberley, TX

aggiejy

Premium Member

Re: But will they lower rates?

said by Luwigie:

Jesus uses Time Warner?
Duh... read the Bible!

dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium Member
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ

dvd536 to moonpuppy

Premium Member

to moonpuppy
said by moonpuppy:

Of course not.
Less for more. just what the CORPORATE GREED MACHINES want.
bgraham2
join:2001-03-15
Smithtown, NY

bgraham2

Member

Newsgroups are part of the Internet

Newsgroups are part of the Internet and I have used them since the internet started. I would be mad if my ISP dropped them because I would have to subscribe to a service.

I guess that 99% of mom and pop internet users do not even know they exist so they will get very few complaints.

battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000

battleop

Member

Re: Newsgroups are part of the Internet

"I guess that 99% of mom and pop internet users do not even know they exist so they will get very few complaints."

When we signed people up I used to tell people about newsgroup access. I used to hear replies like "Oh you mean like CNN?" After a while I gave up on anyone understanding or knowing what newsgroups are and just stopped telling people about it.

We dropped our newsgroups several years ago. I didn't want it to happen but then I was asked for the number of people who used newsgroups. When I looked at the usage and divided out the cost of offering newsgroups by the number of people that were using newsgroups it worked out that each user was costing two to three times what they were paying for service.

djrobx
Premium Member
join:2000-05-31
Reno, NV

djrobx

Premium Member

Re: Newsgroups are part of the Internet

I've enjoyed it while it lasted, but I can't say I'm surprised with TW's decision at all. Most legitimate Usenet purposes can still be done by Google Groups.

Hey TW: You better get SciFi HD now. I've used your newsgroups to acquire the HD versions of Battlestar Galactica. The "other" way to get it is to just switch to DirecTV.

battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000

battleop

Member

Re: Newsgroups are part of the Internet

I was probably the only one that used newsgroups on a regular basis. It was cheaper for me to get a giganews account instead of running the stuff we had.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned) to bgraham2

Member

to bgraham2
said by bgraham2:

Newsgroups are part of the Internet and I have used them since the internet started. I would be mad if my ISP dropped them because I would have to subscribe to a service.

I guess that 99% of mom and pop internet users do not even know they exist so they will get very few complaints.
I wouldn't call myself "mom and pop" I've been on the internet for nearly 9 years now and I consider myself pretty knowledgable. I've never used a newsgroup or even been to one. Not sure what one even looks like. I really don't see what the big deal is. Enlighten me.

Qumahlin
Never Enough Time
MVM
join:2001-10-05
united state

Qumahlin

MVM

Re: Newsgroups are part of the Internet

There really is no big deal except for the people who use their ISP provided newsgroup accounts primarily for warez/movie downloads. Now those people will need to pay for that ability.

Otherwise as another poster pointed out thanks to google and a few other sites you can pretty much access newsgroups as normal via the web, and quite frankly accessing them via the web for actual discussion purposes (thier original use) is actually easier to use and makes discussions easier to follow.

As for what are newsgroups? »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet

Seriously though, piracy is pretty much the only thing still driving the newsgroup industry, it's also the #1 cause of increase in costs to the newsgroup industry due to the immense amount of storage required.

ackpth
@mindspring.com

ackpth

Anon

Re: Newsgroups are part of the Internet

Google has ruined Usenet by allowing free range spammers.

Homer J
Mmmm, Free Goo
join:2000-10-05
Knoxville, TN

Homer J to 88615298

Member

to 88615298
Hate to say this, but if you have been on the Internet for 9 years and are not aware of what a Newgroup is, I would not call you knowledgable. They have been around a long time, and any knowledgable Internet user would know what they are.

D'oh
Just my .02

Homer J

old_dawg
"I Know Noting..."
join:2001-09-22
Westminster, MD

old_dawg to 88615298

Member

to 88615298
said by 88615298:

said by bgraham2:

Newsgroups are part of the Internet and I have used them since the internet started. I would be mad if my ISP dropped them because I would have to subscribe to a service.

I guess that 99% of mom and pop internet users do not even know they exist so they will get very few complaints.
I wouldn't call myself "mom and pop" I've been on the internet for nearly 9 years now and I consider myself pretty knowledgable. I've never used a newsgroup or even been to one. Not sure what one even looks like. I really don't see what the big deal is. Enlighten me.
No offense, but it sounds contradictory to claim to be a knowledgeable nine year "veteran" of the intertubes and not know what Usenet and newsgroups are...for the record, they're in the same aisle with the ftp's and whois.

drivebyposter to 88615298

Anon

to 88615298
said by 88615298:

I wouldn't call myself "mom and pop" I've been on the internet for nearly 9 years now and I consider myself pretty knowledgable. I've never used a newsgroup or even been to one. Not sure what one even looks like. I really don't see what the big deal is. Enlighten me.
It's like email but with a topic hierarchy that goes 4 (or more) levels deep. It "looks" however you want it to look (unless you're using a screen reader). All functionality is provided by the client program.

The client programs provided advanced functions still not available in most forums and blogs. For example, you could block entire threads with a single command. Most modern forums only allow you to block the poster, not the replies to their posts.

As with email, posters pick a subject line for each message. This is in addition to the group's topic. That allows conversations to split, shift, merge and reform naturally, and also allows people to block subjects that don't interest them.
patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY

patcat88 to 88615298

Member

to 88615298
said by 88615298:

said by bgraham2:

Newsgroups are part of the Internet and I have used them since the internet started. I would be mad if my ISP dropped them because I would have to subscribe to a service.

I guess that 99% of mom and pop internet users do not even know they exist so they will get very few complaints.
I wouldn't call myself "mom and pop" I've been on the internet for nearly 9 years now and I consider myself pretty knowledgable. I've never used a newsgroup or even been to one. Not sure what one even looks like. I really don't see what the big deal is. Enlighten me.
newsgroups=old school usually unmoderated forums

Smith6612
MVM
join:2008-02-01
North Tonawanda, NY

Smith6612

MVM

haha...

Time Warner seems to be digging themselves a pit. Newwsgroups these days are pretty popular.
NbWY1
join:2003-05-23
Columbia, MD

NbWY1

Member

VZ

VZ still offers it, hehe.
whiteyonenh
join:2004-08-09
Keene, NH

whiteyonenh

Member

Re: VZ

While Verizon may still offer it, they're missing a significant amount of binary groups, therefore it's like they don't offer it at all.
Bobcat79
Premium Member
join:2001-02-04

Bobcat79

Premium Member

Re: VZ

said by whiteyonenh:

While Verizon may still offer it, they're missing a significant amount of binary groups, therefore it's like they don't offer it at all.
Bull. Verizon's newsgroup service is excellent. I've never found something I wanted in a group they didn't carry.

ropeguru
Premium Member
join:2001-01-25
Mechanicsville, VA

ropeguru to whiteyonenh

Premium Member

to whiteyonenh
said by whiteyonenh:

While Verizon may still offer it, they're missing a significant amount of binary groups, therefore it's like they don't offer it at all.
And rightfully so in my opinion. Newsgroups were never originally designed to handle binary files. The ability to do so was bastardized into the system and should be eliminated completely.
bgraham2
join:2001-03-15
Smithtown, NY

bgraham2

Member

Re: VZ

I have VZ FIOS and there aren't many missing newsgroups that I would use.

As far as binary files in newsgroups are concerned, I agree it was a compromise but it works great IMHO. If anyone is using an email program for Newsgroups good luck to them. Sure it will work, but a dedicated Newsgroup reader with PAR and RAR built in makes it all so easy and at least the one I use is free.
ctggzg
Premium Member
join:2005-02-11
USA

ctggzg to whiteyonenh

Premium Member

to whiteyonenh
said by whiteyonenh:

While Verizon may still offer it, they're missing a significant amount of binary groups, therefore it's like they don't offer it at all.
Not everyone uses newsgroups for thievery, but since that seems to be the main use these days, I wouldn't mind seeing ISPs stop the service.

dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium Member
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ

dvd536 to whiteyonenh

Premium Member

to whiteyonenh
said by whiteyonenh:

While Verizon may still offer it, they're missing a significant amount of binary groups, therefore it's like they don't offer it at all.
Yeah. they dropped all the ones people go to premium providers for.
whiteyonenh
join:2004-08-09
Keene, NH

whiteyonenh

Member

No Newsgroups?

The newsgroups was one of the only things keeping me on Time Warner. If newsgroups go away, it looks like I'll be switching to DSL at some point.

I currently have Roadrunner Turbo only for the upload speed (10down/1up), and frankly I could get DSL for significantly cheaper (3down/0.75up), but looking at it from a financial perspective of going to DSL and having to pay for decent newsgroups, I would be paying less to switch to DSL.

I was thinking about switching providers a while back, but with Time Warner including newsgroups, I felt it to be a better deal, now if they don't offer them anymore, what is keeping me here? They still haven't fixed my signal issue where on hot days sometimes my upstream goes so high that the modem drops. Of course I don't hold TWC totally responsible for that, it's also the apartment building I'm in with RG59/U lines (built in the 70's, probably wired for cable in the late 80's/early 90's).
fxt107
join:2003-01-18
Mechanicsburg, PA

fxt107

Member

Newgroups

Just hope they don't start blocking the ports to get to 3rd party newsgroups. This is all to limit bandwidth use.

Harddrive
Proud American and Infidel since 1968.
Premium Member
join:2000-09-20
Fort Worth, TX

Harddrive

Premium Member

Re: Newgroups

Is my Giganews service available on any other ports besides 119?

Yes, you may also use ports 80 and 23 to access your Giganews account.
lets see them block port 80.

Jeff
Connoisseur of leisurely things
Premium Member
join:2002-12-24
GMT -5

Jeff

Premium Member

Per Gig usage, no newsgroups...

My exgirlfriend's brother's uncle's sister's father works for TW and they said that later this year they'll also be discontinuing e-mail accounts, and bricking everyone's modem.

They will, however, continue to give you a bill every month.

Ah well, I kid, I kid. I never found newsgroup access from any ISP to be reliable/meet my needs within the last 5 or 6 years. I'm actually suprised ISPs still carried Usenet, specifically the binary groups. I don't know how many people this will really impact overall; I'm sure some people here will be effected, but in the grand scheme of things, I dont know. Not one of my coworkers even knows what Usenet is.

v35_pilot
Whoops, there goes another AMU
Premium Member
join:2005-12-12
Fayetteville, NY

v35_pilot

Premium Member

Re: Per Gig usage, no newsgroups...

said by Jeff:

I never found newsgroup access from any ISP to be reliable/meet my needs within the last 5 or 6 years.
TW's binary retention rate was something like 3 days and their completion rate was a miserable 50-60%, as I remember their service from my pre-FiOS days.

Jeff
Connoisseur of leisurely things
Premium Member
join:2002-12-24
GMT -5

1 edit

Jeff

Premium Member

Re: Per Gig usage, no newsgroups...

said by v35_pilot:
said by Jeff:

I never found newsgroup access from any ISP to be reliable/meet my needs within the last 5 or 6 years.
TW's binary retention rate was something like 3 days and their completion rate was a miserable 50-60%, as I remember their service from my pre-FiOS days.
It was that bad, eh? I had Optimum Online from 1999 to mid=-2005, and from 2002 to 2005, newsgroup completion was almost as terrible, and the download speeds were like 50KB/sec. On 10mbit/1mbit at the time too.
acs12798
join:2006-03-13

acs12798

Member

Re: Per Gig usage, no newsgroups...

said by Jeff:

said by v35_pilot:
said by Jeff:

I never found newsgroup access from any ISP to be reliable/meet my needs within the last 5 or 6 years.
TW's binary retention rate was something like 3 days and their completion rate was a miserable 50-60%, as I remember their service from my pre-FiOS days.
It was that bad, eh? I had Optimum Online from 1999 to mid=-2005, and from 2002 to 2005, newsgroup completion was almost as terrible, and the download speeds were like 50KB/sec. On 10mbit/1mbit at the time too.

I have both cablevision and TWC(home and school respectively). Cablevision retention is still poor(i think about a week for two for completes) and is now 120KB/s. TWCs used to be as bad as you say, but about a year ago, they outsourced the newsgroups. Since then its been between 400KBps to 800KBps with 99 day retention for me.

swintec
Premium Member
join:2003-12-19
Alfred, ME

1 recommendation

swintec to v35_pilot

Premium Member

to v35_pilot
said by v35_pilot:
said by Jeff:

I never found newsgroup access from any ISP to be reliable/meet my needs within the last 5 or 6 years.
TW's binary retention rate was something like 3 days and their completion rate was a miserable 50-60%, as I remember their service from my pre-FiOS days.
Wrong. They recently switched earlier this year to outsourcing to Newshosting and there retention shot up to about 100 days. They actually had a pretty good thing going on for there subscribers.

••••
swebsurf
join:2008-06-23

swebsurf to v35_pilot

Member

to v35_pilot
although the ride is over, this statement is not true. they did something early in the year that stretched retention to 100 days. although the header retention was only 30 days, if you created nzb files from Newzbin, you could get reliable completion rate binaries as old as 100 days from TWC. -sigh-

now looking for a reliable newsgroup server...

rcdailey
Dragoonfly
Premium Member
join:2005-03-29
Rialto, CA

rcdailey to Jeff

Premium Member

to Jeff
It's my feeling that most people will not even notice. Between sites like this which offer forums, plus blogs that are popping up all over, the need for newsgroups to share information is nearly gone. Some may say, "What about binaries?" Well, there are many sites on the web that offer binaries. So, there is no longer any marketing value in offering free usenet. Where there is no marketing value in a feature, you can bet it will be removed.

roc5955
Premium Member
join:2005-11-26
Rosendale, NY

1 recommendation

roc5955

Premium Member

RE: Time Warner Cable To Stop Offering Newsgroup Access

Well, we could all get together and file a class-action suit to either get them to bring back the usenet groups as part of their Internet service, or charge us less for incomplete Internet service, yet advertising Internet service, and not advertising limited Internet service. When I hear an advertisement for Internet service, I presume that it is the WHOLE Internet, and not just the part that is profitable to the ISP. I am sure that others will agree with me on this.

Usenet is the main way that we get Linux support, as well as support on a myriad of technical issues. Without it, it is not the Internet.

•••••••

AnonProxy
Premium Member
join:2001-05-12

AnonProxy

Premium Member

Ohhh boy

Why are there so many silly people in the world?

1. You want faster speeds but you want to pay for nothing. I have a feeling that some of those complaining loudly about price and access don't even know what newsgroups are.
Sadly everyone wants something for free...but the answer actually is, TWC will probably not raise rates as fast due to cost cutting...but then again it just might be a profit move.

2. What has driven this switch or drop of newsgroups? file sharing sites and peer to peer sites. 94% of all newsgroup traffic is what, files sharing...by total throughput.

3. For the person that has been using "newsgroups" since the beginning of the "Internet" it is unfortunate that in all that time you didn't figure out that if your ISP stopped offering newsgroup access, you don't need to "subscribe to a service.

4. FOr the guys that think VZ's newsgroup access is top notch. Evidently you don't know newsgroup access or have never used it. VZ's newsgroup access is sub standard for sure.
Corydon
Cultivant son jardin
Premium Member
join:2008-02-18
Denver, CO

Corydon

Premium Member

Re: Ohhh boy

said by AnonProxy:

3. For the person that has been using "newsgroups" since the beginning of the "Internet" it is unfortunate that in all that time you didn't figure out that if your ISP stopped offering newsgroup access, you don't need to "subscribe to a service.
I fall into this category, but I also recognize that USENET today is nothing like what it was 15 or 20 years ago. As far as my needs are concerned, it's outlived its usefulness, like gopher, archie, and a whole host of other tools.

AnonProxy
Premium Member
join:2001-05-12

AnonProxy

Premium Member

Re: Ohhh boy

Wildcat! Rulez...next thing you know...people will want to go back to dial up.

Good for you seeing the trend.

gimme5
join:2002-12-23
Kissimmee, FL

gimme5

Member

Switch to Earthlink?

Maybe a switch to Earthlink is in order for those who don't care about their road runner e-mail/hosting.

telcolackey5
The Truth? You can't handle the truth
join:2007-04-06
Death Valley, CA

telcolackey5

Member

Internet Evolution

Anyone remember UUCP, WAIS, or Gopher? NNTP has had a long and enjoyable life, but audience is so small and most of the discussion value has moved to forum applications like this one.

RIP NNTP
vasta
join:2003-04-07
Orlando, FL

2 edits

vasta

Member

t

that sucks
oh well, no more newsgroups for me...twas a good 4 years (giga to newshosting to roadrunner to nothing)

forgive me here but...i hope they go under because i cant figure out what im paying 200 a month for, shitty internet, 1 box and some channels

oh and the phone, cant forget that, i had more options with bell south...

newview
Ex .. Ex .. Exactly
Premium Member
join:2001-10-01
Parsonsburg, MD

newview

Premium Member

Comcast tried this crap . . .

Comcast tried eliminating newsgroups access when they took over @Home, remember? There was such a stink & uproar that they finally contracted with Giganews to provide subscribers with 1gb of access as part of what you pay for with Comcast HSI. That 1gb has since been increased to 2gb and headers do not count, which they did with the old 1gb plan.

w4csc
@knology.net

w4csc

Anon

Blocking ports to stop usenet access

Someone mentioned blocking ports to prevent usenet downloading...

Won't matter if you get usenetserver.com as you can select many other STANDARD ports, even port 80, to access usenetserver's big server farm on NNTP. TW won't be blocking the spam port the browsers all use. UNS has many other ports and the user can redirect the access path to get the fastest downloads, should TW try to redirect access to a black hole. You can easily bypass the spoofed DNS and use the IP directly.

Unlimited service on 10 simultaneous ports with no censoring is $15/mo.
»www.usenetserver.com/

ReVeLaTeD
Premium Member
join:2001-11-10
San Diego, CA

ReVeLaTeD

Premium Member

Personal experience

I toyed with newsgroups back when I was in high school. I found them unwieldy and not very user-friendly. This was using various types of newsgroups software. It was just too difficult to find what I wanted, and then you had various ISPs filtering the groups so if you found something via web search, it was a crap shoot whether you could hit that group. Shortly after I stopped using them.

I think the people who still use them are (a) using them for illegal purposes or (b) using them for pr0n. My opinion.

DavePR
join:2008-06-04
Canyon Country, CA

1 edit

DavePR

Member

Re: Personal experience

I have been participating in a discussion of a nerdish hobby on Usenet for well over 10 years. There are discussions for every hobby under the sun on the Usenets. There are also groups for every subset of science and technology, from weather to digital TV; upscale audio; flea power ham radio; etc.

Usenet is text and has none of the absurd overhead of HTML (usually) and is well suited to measured discourse.

Google Groups is one of the worst things to happen to Usenet as it allowed the riff-raff to post, without the aptitude test inherent in setting up a third party client.

I already left Earthlink via Time-Warner due to absurd cost, lousy security, and incredibly bad customer service. Today I am more certain I made the right move.

Why does everything end up appealing to the lowest common denominator? Does it have to have pictures to sell it to the average yake?
webgiant
join:2008-07-13
Overland Park, KS

1 edit

webgiant

Member

Re: Personal experience

said by DavePR:

Google Groups is one of the worst things to happen to Usenet as it allowed the riff-raff to post, without the aptitude test inherent in setting up a third party client.
Thanks for making me feel old.

Specifically, about 15 years ago AOL was considered one of the worst things to happen to the Internet "as it allowed the riff-raff to post" on Usenet News (and other places), "without the aptitude test inherent in setting up" an Internet access connection.

Google Groups wasn't the worst thing to happen to Usenet News in terms of "allowing the riff-raff to post", it was the worst thing to happen to Usenet in terms of allowing people to bypass their ISP's Usenet News server. ISPs could see that people weren't using the news server's text-only groups anymore, since the end users could get them on Google Groups, so the ISPs started shutting down their Usenet News servers for cost savings.

Google Groups also blurred the lines between Usenet News and web-based message boards, making the Joe Average user of text-only groups not really understand about Newsreaders and the like. The upshot of the blurring was that Usenet News servers were no longer required because everyone was headed to Google Groups.

So now we're seeing the death knell of Usenet News, which has been replaced by the web-based message boards known as Google Groups. Usenet News is about 0.3% text-only messages, and 99.97% binary-only groups, and ISPs have been trying to shed the latter for years. Google Groups has helped them get rid of Usenet News and its 99.97% binary-only groups, (generally) without offending the folks who still use text-only groups.

jbob
Reach Out and Touch Someone
Premium Member
join:2004-04-26
Little Rock, AR
·Comcast XFINITY
Asus GT-AX6000
Asus RT-AC66U B1

jbob

Premium Member

Access?

I think the topic might be a little misleading at least in the way it's worded. They will not prevent Newsgroup access but will simply stop offering a USENET service. Big difference! Users will still be able to access Newsgroups, they'll just have to subscribe to another News service. Just another way for the ISPs to try and save.
kd6cae
P2p Shouldn't Be A Crime
join:2001-08-27
Bakersfield, CA

kd6cae

Member

Some usenet curiosity questions

I've dabbled in Usenet newsgroups since my days with Verizon in 2003. I've always liked the concept of usenet where a message posted to one server will find it's way to other servers. In this way, if the local ISP usenet server went down, you could connect to another usenet server and still follow any discussions or do any downloading you may wish to do. If a forum or blog goes down, you can't even read any threads or discussion at all until it comes back, as the content isn't distributed across many separate servers.
I never understood though why local ISP servers limited the throughput of incoming binaries, when the folks using the server would be on-network?
Finally, it seems even some dedicated usenet providers such as supernews are outsourcing to Giganews, and they use to have their own usenet server farm network. How many separate usenet server networks are there nowadays? I can only think of giganews, Easynews, usenetserver, and newshosting. I believe Verizon may be the only actual internet service provider that still has their own usenet server setup? I wonder what made usenet suddenly go from something everyone knew they could use if they wanted, to something noone hardly knows exists nowadays? Interesting changes for sure, and I'd guess alot of it has to do with the incredible amount of dedicated bandwidth required to run a full usenet feed?
zerog
join:2002-02-10
Carrollton, TX

zerog

Member

the bigger picture...

No offense, but I think people here are a bit short-sighted as to what is really happening.
Sure, you may say it's just a simple cost-cutting measure aimed at trimming infrequently used services, but us tin-foil-hat types really know what is going down.

I say that there is a quiet push from the **AA types to close a possible legal loophole in copyright violations that Newsgroup access by ISP provides.
I can clearly imagine that now, if your ISP provides usenet access, and you are downloading that latest Micheal Bay wonder in all of it's DivX glory, and some day when the MPAA/RIAA comes knocking (read: kicking down doors with their compliance team [subread: corporate SWAT]), in front of a judge you could claim ignorance and say "Hey, I was only downloading what the ISP provided".

If this trend is continued, expect some heavier persecution of usenet...

djrobx
Premium Member
join:2000-05-31
Reno, NV

1 edit

djrobx

Premium Member

Re: the bigger picture...

The big problem the **AA has with Usenet is that it's much harder to go after people for worthwhile damages on a file download. Uploading is where all of the propagation potential and big monetary damages comes from. Compare to P2P, where people who are downloading are, for the most part, implicitly uploading as well.

Still, at some point the lawyers will figure out how to hold usenet servers responsible for the data they're harboring, and when they do, I'm sure TW will be happy to be completely out of that game.

Linkedit5
join:2004-10-10
Brooklyn, NY

Linkedit5

Member

newsgroups?

they still exist? who cares, just read them through google. that story is such a non issue, i'm surprised twc offered them this long.

djrobx
Premium Member
join:2000-05-31
Reno, NV

djrobx

Premium Member

Re: newsgroups?

said by Linkedit5:

they still exist? who cares, just read them through google. that story is such a non issue, i'm surprised twc offered them this long.
It's a a significant issue for people who partake in usenet binaries.

neonhomer
Dearborn 5-2750
Premium Member
join:2004-01-27
Edgewater, FL

neonhomer

Premium Member

So if RR drops newsgroups...

Do you think Earthlink will drop them as well? It really doesn't matter to me, as I have an Astraweb news account, and it works a whole lot better than the EL NNTP ever did...
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