AT&T Closes its Remaining Usenet Access

[-unknown-]

“The pervasiveness of child pornography on the Internet is horrific and it needs to be stopped,” said Attorney General Cuomo. “We are attacking this problem by working with Internet Service Providers to ensure they do not play host to this immoral business. I commend the companies that have stepped up today to embrace a new standard of responsibility, which should serve as a model for the entire industry.”

I agree with Grieve (one of the first posts), this does not in any way fight the problem of child pornography. The AG states that he's fighting the problem by trying to eliminate the sources of distribution but NOT the acts themselves. This is the equivalent of finding someone getting raped in a park and telling the rapist "Hey! you take that elsewhere but not here!" and not actually stopping the criminal act itself.

I don't know if the AG sees the flaw in his method or is consciously doing it to meet another goal (publicity). In either case, its important to realize that you need a source to be able to find the criminals. Eliminating the source just resets the parameters of your search to find these people in the first place.

 

[Parrdacc]

I am so sick of state attorneys and law enforcement using child pornography to take down services that are hard to monitor or just plain cannot monitor. Not all these services are filled with the a bunch of sick demented types and the majority of them have nothing to do with child porno or porno in general. As already been stated go after the actual people doing these things. Oh, forgot if it is out of sight then it is out of mind and so does not exist. Right? Wrong! It will still be there cause these so called crusaders that try and protect children from these #$%#@#$'s are not protecting anyone least of all the kids. The bad people doing this are still out there all you do by doing this is drive it further underground, but like I said already maybe that's what you want instead of dealing with the real problem.

 

[fuser]

Damn. I spent half of my college years reading and posting in the alt.* newsgroups and the other half was playing MUDs on gopher.

 

[belardo]

Gee thanks AG. Screwed it up for the rest of us. Back when we had "included" newsgroups, we had about 45,000 groups. They are handy in their own way, more techy less flash than browsers.

But I don't recall how many or which ones were pedo groups, and being how newsgroups were and the cross-posting, etc. It could be anywhere.

This is what happens when you have an IDIOT making laws or fighting fights they don't understand. Good examples above. Shutting down newsgroups only HURT 99%+ of the people who use it for non child-porn activities. If he wants to DO IT WRITE, he needs to outlaw computers, TVs, cameras... hell, if YOU really want to stop child porn (which unfortunately, happens ALL over the world) there is only one 100% method that works.

Outlaw children. No more kids allowed, period.

Does this same guy (and others who support him) have the same views on Gun laws (this is important to KNOW!)... I love the joke... make bullets expensive. A gansta might think twice before pumping $1000 a round bullet into someone.

 

[ssddx]

Not quite, you could just eliminate all freedom and make people live in cages with shock collars. In all seriousness, theres no sane way to stop this from happening. The only logical thing is to give 90% of the population a reason to avoid the topic (ie. it is illegal)

$1000 bullets... I fire nothin' but gold bullion foo. Thanks for the laugh.

 

[Marcus52]

As Jefferson said (I believe it was Thomas Jefferson), the people won't have their rights taken away by our government, they will give them away. In the light of protecting children we are giving away something fundamental to freedom - free speech. It is unconstitutional for our government to do what they are doing re: the internet and communications across it, yet we all sit here and take it.

Who wants to appear to be fighting for the right for child porn, and the horrendous acts associated with it? No one. So, we are shut up as thoroughly as if we were thrown in a padded cell. Those lying, weak politicians who screamm 'Constitution!' to get our votes are the biggest culprits in destroying it, as the last 8 years have proven.

The so-called opposition has done nothing to prevent it.

We are all complicit.

 

[Cache]

I always wondered why--in the age where the RIAA and MPAA were suing over sites hosting illegal content--no one ever sued the ISP's for hosting (or, as in many cases of the material in question, 'provided access to' illegal content). While there is always something good about limiting access to material that is derived from harmful illegal activities such as pedophilia, they are doing it all wrong. This is the equivalent of having high schoolers watch 1950's movies on sex education--a small waste of time and nothing more. The material is still being produced, it is still being distributed, and usenet is still easily accessible.

Oh, and the illegal content is STILL being permitted on ISP's like Time Warner as long as the user merely goes through third-party sites/programs to get usenet info. So this is really about a few politicians patting themselves on the back while Cuomo puts up a banner in his office saying "Mission Accomplished".

 

[masop]

[citation][nom]bittoe[/nom]There are over 80,000 newsgroups; 88 had "child porn" on them. OMG That's what I call pervasive![/citation]

I agree with the fact that this cr@p with child pornography is terrible. The approach they have taken is quite overkill though.

Regarding usenet, there are well over 100,000 news groups available. Considering that less than 1/100th of a percent were complained about, I don't understand why they had to threaten the ISP's and coax them to remove access altogether.

All they had to do was remove and deny access to the alt.binaries groups. It is simple to do from an administrators perspective, if you wanted to. At least then, the non-binary groups would continue to be more easily accessible and not cost people additional $$$ each month for a 3rd party subscription.

The proverb "don't cut off your nose to spite your face" comes to mind. Oh well. All hail Giganews!

-- MaSoP

 

[Guest]

http/www.usenet-providers.net/AT&T-newsgroup-specials.html

Several example newsgroup providers where you can sign up for a premium Usenet account with specials offers

 

[jamesontoms]

Security Quickly Exceeds the Moral Bounds of a Civilized Society.
Security and moral prohibitionists, whether hired or voluntary,
seek their duty, an unbounded duty,
that quickly exceeds balance, rational, and tolerance.
Their actions incidentally mark themselves to be shunned,
and civil society should shun the likes of Cuomo.

While most Americans tout their moral compass as The Ten Commandments,
we better find a higher moral compass like our founders Bill of Rights.
It's freedom of speech that should far outweigh worries about criminals' bad speech.
To destroy 100,000 news groups to eliminate 88 criminals;
reminds us all of criminal states killing 100 villagers for every 1 military personnel killed.
The Court of Civility should mark Cuomo's acts as UNAMERICAN.