The Changing Face Of The Usenet

'I think the MPA's basic objective should be just to sell films,' says Killock, 'and I think the real question for them right now is why their films aren't available for streaming and download, and why they haven't created a thriving market. You don't need to have sites like Newzbin, which are barely used and not very popular, blocked in order to create a thriving market in online content. What you need is good services, well marketed, competing with each other, and I think the real question is why they're not basically moving ahead with those tools and services as quickly as they should.'

'Copyright infringement is best dealt with by markets, and this whole chasing the tail of individual copyright infringement problems is a total distraction from people getting out and marketing what they're doing.'


This is a very good point. We can buy DRM-free music from services such as iTunes and Amazon, and we can easily buy games online (and download free demos) from Steam. Apple is making headway here by offering a decent selection of films to rent and buy from iTunes, including HD versions, but there's still a long way to go - again, complex licensing issues mean that some films aren't available to rent, while others are only available at certain resolutions. The movie industry would arguably make more money from selling legitimate content in this way than it would from its archaic business model after censoring a binary-sharing Usenet service.

However, this clearly isn't the way the MPA wishes to proceed. Not only has it successfully got a High Court Judge to rule that BT has to block access to Newzbin, but it also told us that it 'hopes that the other ISPs will follow this judgement and apply site-blocking.' as well.

What Does Censorhip Mean For The Usenet?

So what does this mean for the Usenet? Will the censoring of binary-sharing Usenet services affect the way in which people use this age-old online discussion system? We put out a few feelers to find people who were still legitimately using the Usenet for discussion to find out, and found that former bit-tech news reporter Gareth Halfacree still uses it occasionally – he kindly put us in touch with some of the folks who use the Usenet for discussion today.

'I have mixed feelings about it, to be honest,' says MerseyMal, a regular user of uk.games.video.misc. ' Losing access to such services wouldn’t affect me in the slightest. These services seem solely to exist for copyright infringement, unlike torrents which are quite handy for distribution of large files such as linux distros and game patches.'


Similarly, deKay, another user of uk.games.video.misc, says that the censorship of Newzbin 'doesn't affect me personally, and I can understand the reasoning.' However, he notes that this could be a sign of worrying events to come. 'I remember when the Internet was the land of the free,' says deKay. 'I suppose it had to come to an end eventually, but this does set a worrying precedent, especially since Newzbin doesn't actually contain the illegal content - just links to it. I know that's its purpose, but Google also provides links to illegal content - if this is the start, at what stage does it stop?'

Interestingly, we also tried to contact a few people who use the Usenet for gaining free access to copyright content, but none of them were willing to comment on it, on the basis that talking publicly about their activities would more draw attention to the use of the Usenet for sharing binaries, and potentially end up with more services being censored.