major ISPs cave to NYS AG: no USENET or no alt.* groups

[cycjec]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9964895-38.html?tag=nefd.lede
N.Y. attorney general forces ISPs to curb Usenet access

Posted by Declan McCullagh

[Update 6/12 11:40 a.m. Verizon has offered more details on what
newsgroups will be removed. And here's background on whether or not
Usenet is being blocked.]

What Cuomo didn't say is that his agreement with broadband providers
means that they will broadly curb customers' access to Usenet--the
venerable pre-Web home of some 100,000 discussion groups, only a
handful of which contain illegal material.

Time Warner Cable said it will cease to offer customers access to any
Usenet newsgroups, a decision that will affect customers nationwide.
Sprint said it would no longer offer any of the tens of thousands of
alt.* Usenet newsgroups. Verizon's plan is to eliminate some "fairly
broad newsgroup areas."

[enigma]

Post by cycjec
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9964895-38.html?tag=nefd.l
ede N.Y. attorney general forces ISPs to curb Usenet access
Posted by Declan McCullagh
[Update 6/12 11:40 a.m. Verizon has offered more details on
what newsgroups will be removed. And here's background on
whether or not Usenet is being blocked.]
What Cuomo didn't say is that his agreement with broadband
providers means that they will broadly curb customers'
access to Usenet--the venerable pre-Web home of some
100,000 discussion groups, only a handful of which contain
illegal material.
Time Warner Cable said it will cease to offer customers
access to any Usenet newsgroups, a decision that will
affect customers nationwide. Sprint said it would no longer
offer any of the tens of thousands of alt.* Usenet
newsgroups. Verizon's plan is to eliminate some "fairly
broad newsgroup areas."

then switch your NNTP to one of the free servers or one of the
pay servers, like the German server (most of which offer
better spam filters anyway). just because some broadband
providers are jumping on this strawman charge to get rid of
running NNTP servers (which seriously are very expensive to
operate, particularly if any of the binary groups are
offered), doesn't mean they can actually prevent you from
getting any usenet group through another server outside their
system.
personally, i'd demand a rebate on the monthly charge for
services, since they are cutting a service that is the main
reason i even bother with having an ISP... except that i
haven't ever bothered to connect to my broadband ISP's NNTP
server ;)
since porn, including kiddie porn, has been around since the
dawn of photography pretty much, shutting down a few computer
servers is only going to accomplish one thing. it will remove
the offending material from the eyes & minds of the general
public of the US, and if it's out of the media, then it's
pretty much allowed to flourish with no checks... IOW, this
nonsense is only going to make things easier for the "baddies"
lee