Back before the days of Napster and Kazaa, the file sharing apps we are so familiar with today, there was always Usenet or so called "news servers". These were often your best bet to find help with programs or hardware issues from your peers when used as a bulletin board for discussion groups, and it still is today. But in addition to discussion groups are the many binary groups listed on the servers that can contain warez, Mp3's and also movies ripped from DVD's.
These newsgroups are cumbersome to use when compared to modern day P2P apps. For one thing, there was always a 10,000 line limit to a file. For this reason, large files are broken up sometimes into hundreds of pieces and each parrt must be found, downloaded and then re-assembled. This is a tedious process and also, due to space limtations on the server, if you weren't quick, it may be deleted. Without all the parts, the file is useless. Needless to say, when the newer P2P apps came along, the ease of use and shallow learning curve caused an exodus away from the news servers and readers.
Now however, the RIAA and others have applied so much pressure to P2P, that Usenet is making a comeback. Former P2P users are rediscovering the news server system and even new apps are being developed to facilitate it's use more efficiently. The primary reason is it seems, is that some people feel it's safer to use. The RIAA (not the MPAA) has so far been looking for those that share or upload files in their legal search strategy and have been leaving downloaders alone. In Usenet, there are no demands to upload, so you can leech all day without penalty and hope you will be left alone. Of course, someone has to upload, but that does not seem to be a problem, as stats indicated at the link below, show that Usenet is growing rapidly and also there is a huge surge of activity. In one warez group alone there is an average daily upload of 60 gigabytes of DVD movie rips!
The reason for such activity could also be due to a new new file format called NZB and also high bandwidth servers that allow you to download at whatever your connection can stand.
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NZB files are supported by most popular newsreaders, including NZBGet for Mac and Linux, and NewsBin Pro for PC. There are now also several dedicated alt.binaries.nzb newsgroups. More dramatically, NZB allows web searches of files posted to Usenet, making Usenet almost as easy to use as eMule or Kazaa. This new file format and the rise of commercial high-bandwidth Usenet services -- such as NewsGroups and Usenet.com -- are fueling the revival of Usenet. Pirates now are discovering, to their surprise, that the old newsgroup system, patched with modern technology, outperforms most other P2P networks. "The download speed butchers any other system you use to download data," said Gilgamesh, a U.K.-based downloader currently moving part of his operation to newsgroups. "A lot of new servers can shift data as fast as you're prepared to accept it." |
To get an idea of the current activity on Usenet forums, you can check out the stats at NewsAdmin. You might be surprised! Also, pay a visit to the Usenet.com site, as on their main page, they let you know real quick that they do not track the users on their network or keep up with what they are doing. Does this not remind you a bit of the old Whack-a-Mole game, especially if you look at the situation from the copyright holders standpoint? If you want to read more about this story, head on over to Wired.
A good place to discuss Usenet would be our Music
Download, Peer to Peer (P2P) & Legal Issues Forum. Here you can
share what your ISP offers as a news service with your
account, or even these additional sites, if you have had some experience with
them.
Source: Wired
