Usenet: The Next Target in the War on Piracy

Written by Ernesto on August 19, 2007 

The first rule of Usenet is, you don’t talk about Usenet. This rule kept Usenet providers and users out of sight from anti-piracy organizations for years, but this is about to change.

Usenet The Next Target in the War on PiracyUsenet is catching up with BitTorrent in terms of popularity, partly because it is considered to be safer. However, this increased popularity also has a dark side to it, as anti-piracy organizations start monitoring newsgroups.

Tim Kuik, managing director of BREIN - the Dutch branch of the MPAA - told the Dutch news site Webwereld that the increased attention from computer magazines over the past year lowered the nerd-factor of the Usenet. Because of this it’s now become one of the main targets of anti-piracy outfits.

Kuik further said that BREIN made a blacklist of Usenet providers who structurally infringe copyright. Their plan is to urge these providers to stop their services and compensate the content owners for their losses. Some might argue that Kuik’s words are yet another loose threat to make it seem like no pirate is safe, but there is some truth in his statements.

TorrentFreak talked to an insider, who works closely with anti-piracy organizations like the MPAA and RIAA, and he also noticed that the Usenet has been getting more attention lately. “BitTorrent is still enemy number one, but there is a significant growth in Usenet monitoring”, he said. Some Usenet providers now use BitTorrent sites to advertise their services and according to our source, this is another big reason why it caught the attention of anti-piracy outfits.

The people in charge at most anti-piracy organizations hardly know how to write an e-mail, if it’s not in the media, it’s not a target. If only people kept to rule number one this probably would have never happened.

The Usenet providers are not impressed by BREIN’s strong words though. Remco Habets from Usenet provider Usenet4u said in a response: “BREIN often makes statement that lead to nothing. One and a half year ago they also said that they were going to take on newsgroups, we’ll see”

To be continued…

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Previously: Police Target ‘Pirate Cinema’ Fuelled by Downloaded Movies

Next: Franz Ferdinand Encourage Fans to Pirate New Track

52 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)

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1 Aug 19, 2007 at 18:19 by Paul

Wake up!
http://tinyurl.com/27sfw2

2 Aug 19, 2007 at 19:09 by Gus

I think I just pooped a little in my trousers.

3 Aug 19, 2007 at 19:37 by AnondD

next target? well look at bittorent, its hardly been stopped has it and that was a “target”. i think ill be taking this with a pinch of salt.

4 Aug 19, 2007 at 19:55 by Irma

The first rule of usenet is….

(shhhhhhhh! everyone just shhhh!)

5 Aug 19, 2007 at 20:48 by Communist

These antip2p fuctards are such a laugh. I just love reading their statements.

6 Aug 19, 2007 at 21:58 by Sifor

Oooh, that doesn’t sound to good. I wonder if they are serious about it?

7 Aug 19, 2007 at 22:27 by Froosh

Usenet isn’t that good anyways.

8 Aug 19, 2007 at 23:06 by v

torrents are better anyway.

9 Aug 19, 2007 at 23:50 by An0nym0us

Did you know that if you drink 2 liters of beer and take 4 Xanax… wait between 20 to 30 minutes and then read all these articals… you just laugh and not care ither way… oh… you will also go to sleep right after.

Yup now that is a fact.

10 Aug 20, 2007 at 00:08 by greenkeyboard

The Usenet providers are not impressed by BREIN’s strong words though. Remco Habets from Usenet provider Usenet4u said in a response: “BREIN often makes statement that lead to nothing. One and a half year ago they also said that they were going to take on newsgroups, we’ll see”

Enough said so untill something happens just relax!

11 Aug 20, 2007 at 03:14 by dataduden

This might be because USENEXT has such an aggresive advertisement.

12 Aug 20, 2007 at 05:43 by Janko

Once again Germany is taking the lead:

http://www.p2p-blog.com/item-235.html

13 Aug 20, 2007 at 09:45 by anon

usenet sucks

14 Aug 20, 2007 at 14:04 by ronnie

you cant stop torrents or usenet, torrents use up one third of the worlds bandwidth with all the leechers you have a better chance of getting struck by lightning than getting caught downloading. these anti piracy groups are lame they should get real jobs.

15 Aug 20, 2007 at 15:16 by Sonnentier

Usenet is a technology, Usenet is a network. They can remove warez from a bunch of USP or shut them down, there are still many left.
Anyway, it’s not good if these organizations touch the paradise.

16 Aug 20, 2007 at 19:49 by dave

good usenet is a scam anyways.

17 Aug 20, 2007 at 21:07 by DK

usenet sucks

——

So maxing your download connection on nearly everything sucks does it? You stick to torrents and the slow downloads due to the increasing amount of leechers and I’ll sit back and laugh while I’m downloading at 1mbps+

18 Aug 20, 2007 at 21:26 by for

“The first rule of Usenet is, you don’t talk about Usenet. This rule kept Usenet providers and users out of sight from anti-piracy organizations for years, but this is about to change.”

You’ve been listening too much to the fan boys. That statement is a bunch of BS.

19 Aug 21, 2007 at 00:29 by An0nym0us

[quote comment="149733"]you cant stop torrents or usenet, torrents use up one third of the worlds bandwidth with all the leechers you have a better chance of getting struck by lightning than getting caught downloading. these anti piracy groups are lame they should get real jobs.[/quote]

sad part is… they are getting payed to do the job of trying to catch us.

20 Aug 21, 2007 at 02:30 by DXO

so, where do you get usenet?

21 Aug 21, 2007 at 07:37 by peckerwood

Bit torrent= P2P wellfare

Usenet= P2P Bliss

You got to pay to play baby.

22 Aug 21, 2007 at 09:27 by Sonnentier

Usenet is Filesharing, but not P2P.

23 Aug 21, 2007 at 15:22 by rah

So maxing your download connection on nearly everything sucks does it? You stick to torrents and the slow downloads due to the increasing amount of leechers and I’ll sit back and laugh while I’m downloading at 1mbps+

————————

I get 3-4Mbps on all my torrents, regularly, without paying…

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