Re: Buzzy's Update! OT

de John Corliss 06/29/2006 03:47

Brian Robertson wrote:
> Nicetameetya wrote:
>> Buzzy wrote:
>>> Brian Robertson wrote:
>>>> Buzzy wrote:
>>>>> Hi All,
>>>> I presume the ISP that you are upset at is Bell Sympatico. There has
>>>> been a
>>>> lot of talk about the loss of their Usenet Newsgroup service over at
>>>> can.internet.highspeed. I am with Rogers, we lost our Newsgroups back in
>>>> January. Seems to be a Canadian trend.
>>> Absolutely correct!! I used newsgroups on a regular basis and considered
>>> it part and parcel to my package. I have since paid individual.net for
>>> the service which I used when it was free. I STILL want to change isp's
>>> like cogoco cable however, I think the 'canadian' trend may spread to
>>> them too. AFA records, I don't give a shit! I have nothing to hide, I
>>> just want that damn service!
>>>
>> The trend in New Zealand as well. The country's biggest (although not
>> best) ISP pulled the plug on its news server a few months back,
>> claiming it was a "complimentary service." It's interesting to see
>> that other ISP's are also full of shite.
>
> I suspect many ISPs are being filled with fear as well. Usenet (sadly) is
> being used to distribute pirated movies, music, software as well as child
> pornography. The ISP's lawyers are probably telling them to cut-and-run
> before they have to find out how culpable they are for the content on their
> NNTP servers.

For the most part, all they have to do is to stop carrying the binary
groups. I think other reasons that ISPs are discontinuing usenet support
are:

1. If they have their own newsfeeds, it's costly and labor intensive to
maintain those servers. Rob, who works at my ISP, Computer Country, told
me that they discontinued having their own newsfeed for exactly this
reason. I'm fortunate though, that they carry news via Supernews.

2. Another major reason would be that ISPs see a way to increase the
amount of money they can charge by discontinuing usenet support until
the outcry is loud enough that they can "give in" and offer it again for
a separate fee.

Just the day before yesterday, I was looking for a free news server that
supports posting. Didn't even have to have binaries. Just have a
reasonable speed and allow reading text only groups and, as I said,
posting. I had no luck. Has anybody else found anything?

--
Regards from John Corliss
I don't reply to trolls like Andy Mabbett or Doc (who uses sock puppets)
for instance. No adware, cdware, commercial software, crippleware,
demoware, nagware, PROmotionware, shareware, spyware, time-limited
software, trialware, viruses or warez for me, please.