EXTRA!! EXTRA!! Usenet CENSORED!!!

[DeMoN]

Verizon has released details of the agreement it and other ISPs signed last week to block access to Usenet groups that have been caught trafficking child pornography. Instead of simply blocking the handful of offending groups, however, Verizon has decided to enforce a blanket ban on what could be tens of thousands of completely innocent groups.
It all started when New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo enlisted the help of Verizon and other ISPs with his assault on child pornography spread through Usenet groups. A while ago, Cuomo’s investigators submitted anonymous reports to ISPs like Verizon, Sprint, and Time Warner Cable about child pornography images stored on their important servers and trafficked through Usenet groups. When the ISPs did nothing—failing to uphold their policy of taking swift action against peddlers of child porn—Cuomo’s investigators threatened to charge the ISPs with fraud and deceptive business practices.
The ISPs bargained with Cuomo’s office and came to an agreement in which each would pay $1.125 million to the Attorney General’s office and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to fund further efforts. The ISPs also agreed to clean up their servers and block access to Usenet groups that are spreading child pornography, and Verizon has now offered details on exactly how it plans to enforce this ban. Originally, Cuomo’s office claimed to have found child pornography on 88 of the 100,000-plus Usenet groups. Perhaps aspiring to win a G-rating from Utah, CNET reports that Verizon has opted to block not just the 88 offending groups, but a whole lot more. Verizon will provide access only to the “big 8,” a group of hierarchies that are actively managed and governed by a more substantial set of rules than the banned groups.
The banned hierarchies include alt.*, a hierarchy known to be a haven for trading many forms of copyrighted media (fonts, wares, movies, TV shows, music, porn—you name it, it’s there) and, of course, the child pornography Cuomo’s office is after. alt.* and the other groups Verizon will censor are also home to plenty of harmless discussion groups, such as alt.tv.simpsons, alt.fan, alt.religion, and more. While Ars Technica commends the crusade against child pornography, ISPs agreeing to wipe a whole Usenet hierarchy off the digital map seems too much like using a sledgehammer to strike a nail.
One could argue that Usenet/newsgroups don’t see quite the same traffic they used to back in the 80s and 90s. Even so, Verizon is now voluntarily agreeing to censor an entire network containing hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of legitimate and innocent discussions in the name of squashing a few problem areas. As we’ve suggested before, this form of overzealous approach could turn into a trend that enables governments to regulate content that is arbitrarily deemed harmful to the public good or even commercial interests.

this is total bull shit!

[Errage]

Then they'd be like "No."

End of story in your case.

[Beatsta]

Maybe it is "total bullshit" to you because you like watching child porn, but it isn't to me. Good riddence.

[DeMoN]

umm you obvuiously fail to compute....usenet is about as old as irc..,...meaning its one of the first branches of the internet...and the article yes does mention child ******..but i am saying this is a tragidey as they are censoring a whole hiarchy of newsgroups alt.*...this might not mean anythign to any nub thats a torrent tard...but newsgroups are where all your torrents come from...when a file is distroed it is distroed over irc then moved to newsgroups then it is moved to torrents...newsgroups and usenet are faster, safer, and better for obtaining such things as movies, music, games, software, etc then any other means including irc....well the thing is all files are generally located in alt.binaries a branch of the alt.* tree this means that they are censoring a whoole part of the internet with millions of groups...when they could just as easily block the 88 groups foudn to obtain illegal smut...

ok for you total idiots out there what this means is this is the one of the first move for internet policeing in the US meaning the next to go will be torrents and all other p2p means of obtaining files. say good bye to your freebies...


oh and lastly Beatsta go **** your self you piece of shit read the full article befor you open your ****ign mouth and start a flame war **** its people like you that keep me from posting here any more

if anyone else has anymore questions or faisl to understand please post and ill explain in greater detail if i must.


here for those complete morons out there it would be like your isp blocking mmowned and every other gaming site because 4chan hosts CP and talks about video games

after talking with my 3rd party usenet provider and my isp have discovered that this censorship will only effect newsgroups offered by isp's and not the 3rd party subscriptions. thank god my movies are safe!

on another note its just a matter of time now though untill isps start blocking everything and you need 3rd party subscriuptions to do anythign worthwhile on the internet

[Greenroom]

Maybe it is "total bullshit" to you because you like watching child porn, but it isn't to me. Good riddence.

/signed and agreed

[Errage]

/signed and agreed

Alright, everyone, you know the drill, duck and cover, get under a table, etc.

Soon as DeMoN logs back on, all hell is unleashed.

[arigity]

i do not agree with what their doing but your reasons for disagreeing are completely ridiculous. how the hell can you defend an argument about them removing stuff that is deemed illegal by saying that it would prevent you from getting illegal stuff?

the internet is not supposed to be some rundown lawless place where leechers can acquire anything they want with google. it SHOULD be policed, if in losing a few sites with questionable material you save the economy trillions of dollars in pirated software, then so be it. that sounds pretty damn nice to me.

[DeMoN]

your correct i use newsgroups for piracy which isnt the most legit reasons (in the super power we call the US) for using it...but then again with the inflation of the economy going through the roof who can blame me or anyone else for getting what they can...

on another note its not just me and other pirates they're screwing over its anyone that uses that tree for legit reasons which trust me there are many...discussion groups dealing with many things from video games to religion...its not just a free for all leech fest...

and Tina's right but i will bite my tongue...for today is a day we should all remember one of comedy's great geniuses Geroge Carlin may he rest in peace

[kelat]

and Tina's right but i will bite my tongue...for today is a day we should all remember one of comedy's great geniuses Geroge Carlin may he rest in peace

I can't believe it

So tragic :/