Comcast no longer supports usenet

Tim McNamara wrote:
[...] Additionally there has been pressure brought to bear on
ISPs to filter or eliminate Usenet as it is seen as a haven for child
pornography and music/software piracy. Most ISPs don't want to
jeopardize their common carrier status by taking this on- once they
start examining content, they are no longer acting as a common carrier
and could lose the liability protection this affords them- so they are
dropping Usenet.[...]

Why not drop just the binary groups (and their large bandwidth) then?

--
Tom Sherman - 42.435731,-83.985007
If you are not a part of the solution, you are a part of the precipitate.

Tim McNamara wrote:
In article ,
"* * Chas" (remove spamski to e-mail me)
wrote:

It still doesn't justify the $59/mo I pay for my Comcast ISP cable
connection.

Nope. It sure doesn't. Not to mention Comcast's selective bandwidth
throttling...

I have not had cable television for a couple of decades, since I refuse
to support a gouging monopoly.

--
Tom Sherman - 42.435731,-83.985007
If you are not a part of the solution, you are a part of the precipitate.

Tom Sherman wrote:

Tim McNamara wrote:

[...] Additionally there has been pressure brought to bear on
ISPs to filter or eliminate Usenet as it is seen as a haven for child
pornography and music/software piracy. *Most ISPs don't want to
jeopardize their common carrier status by taking this on- once they
start examining content, they are no longer acting as a common carrier
and could lose the liability protection this affords them- so they are
dropping Usenet.[...]

Why not drop just the binary groups (and their large bandwidth) then?

Mail can be (and is) used for all the same illegal and/or abusive
things, but ISPs haven't-- yet-- stopped offering that service. And
just like Carl points out about Usenet, SMTP/POP/IMAP is diminishing
in popularity because you can get good e-mail for free on the web, so
why should ISPs provide such a thing?

To my mind, an ISP not supporting Usenet is like a road system not
allowing peds. It happens, but it's wrong. Nobody should live in a
place like that.

Chalo

On Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:08:22 GMT, Still Just Me said...

On Sun, 02 Nov 2008 11:47:21 -0600, Tom Sherman
wrote:


Why not drop just the binary groups (and their large bandwidth) then?

Because maintaining the server farm for the Usenet, or providing
access through a third party (e.g. Giganews) still costs a lot of
money. The latest concerns were an excuse for the ISP's to dump a high
cost, low return item and all of it's related concerns en masse.

I think you're absolutely right! ISP's like Comcast & Roadrunner wanted to cut
their costs associated with Usenet, and "child porn" became a convenient excuse
for why they had to shut down their news servers.

When Comcast made the announcement I checked out some of the provider review
sites (newsadmin.com, newsgroupreviews.com, etc.) and after trialing several
providers (Giganews, Easynews, Newsguy, etc.) I got an account with Newsguy.

They have 10 Gig accounts for $3 month and 50 Gig accounts for $8 month, so
they're a much better deal than Giganews (25 Gig - $13 month) based on what I
found. They're also giving away a free month of newsgroup service to Comcast
people which was a nice bonus...

http://newsguy.com/freemonth.htm

I get all the text & binary groups, they roll over my unused Gigs each month, I
can access with my newsreader or their website reader, they have a newsgroup
search engine, and I also get free email & website hosting.

I've genuinely been impressed with their setup and thought I'd mention it for
anyone that's shopping around for a provider. If all you need is text groups, I
would recommend Motzarella.

-T-

On 3 Nov 2008 14:13:05 -0800, Terrence wrote:

On Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:08:22 GMT, Still Just Me said...

On Sun, 02 Nov 2008 11:47:21 -0600, Tom Sherman
wrote:


Why not drop just the binary groups (and their large bandwidth) then?

Because maintaining the server farm for the Usenet, or providing
access through a third party (e.g. Giganews) still costs a lot of
money. The latest concerns were an excuse for the ISP's to dump a high
cost, low return item and all of it's related concerns en masse.

I think you're absolutely right! ISP's like Comcast & Roadrunner wanted to cut
their costs associated with Usenet, and "child porn" became a convenient excuse
for why they had to shut down their news servers.

When Comcast made the announcement I checked out some of the provider review
sites (newsadmin.com, newsgroupreviews.com, etc.) and after trialing several
providers (Giganews, Easynews, Newsguy, etc.) I got an account with Newsguy.

They have 10 Gig accounts for $3 month and 50 Gig accounts for $8 month, so
they're a much better deal than Giganews (25 Gig - $13 month) based on what I
found. They're also giving away a free month of newsgroup service to Comcast
people which was a nice bonus...

http://newsguy.com/freemonth.htm

I get all the text & binary groups, they roll over my unused Gigs each month, I
can access with my newsreader or their website reader, they have a newsgroup
search engine, and I also get free email & website hosting.

I've genuinely been impressed with their setup and thought I'd mention it for
anyone that's shopping around for a provider. If all you need is text groups, I
would recommend Motzarella.

-T-

Dear Terrence,

If the major ISPs were just cost-cutting, then they would not have
dropped usenet.

Instead, they would have announced that usenet access was no longer
included with your subscription and would now cost $1 a month.

There isn't much fixed cost or potential profit in usenet for the
major ISPs. After all, www.motzarella.org offers text usenet for free.

Making a profit on usenet or saving a little money was not the point.

The major ISPs dropped usenet to avoid huge legal and financial risks.

When the government threatens to sue you over child porn, you drop
whatever is the basis of their suit like a hot potato.

It's a bit like the medical world. When state legislators change
malpractice laws, more doctors retire early, stop accepting certain
patients, or move to another state to avoid the legal and financial
risks.

Anyone with a Comcast account is free to pay $3 (or $8) per month to
the usenet provider that you mention, but they'll also be paying to
duplicate the email and website hosting included with a Comcast
subscription. Giving a free month to disgruntled Comcast users is just
a sensible business tactic to try to attract long-term customers.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel