Pirate Act - re Doom's news

The comments by Hatch and others really focus on P2P as the primary problem source. It clearly is the most easily usable network infrastructure for moving files around the internet and surely the most used and available, so I see the rationale for targeting P2P. What about Usenet? Is it fundamentally different somehow and is not addressed by the Pirate Act or DMCA? Or is it so much smaller a problem they've decided not to complicate these initiative's understanding and passage by adding more technical complexity or paths for the bills to get derailed? Usenet is great, I use it a lot, and hope to continue to do so. It is just that I've never really hear this discussed in the context of stealing IP.

I seem to remember a piece of wisdom about hating the message and not the messanger. And in this case Hatch and henchmen have it backwards. P2P is simply the messenger and not the message or even the one sending the message. Sure killing the messenger can provide superficial short term satisfaction. But it does not even address the problem/message. And there are "always" other messengers. Even if it is sneakernet. Hatch and crew are just taking a hyper hypocritical stance. We don't ban all guns because they can be used to kill. We don't ban all drugs because they could be used to kill. And we dont ban them for the same reason we don't ban cars, Tvs, VCRs, computers, cameras, tape decks, cd players/recorders, and books. Because in one way or another they are all messengers conveying a message be it good or bad. It is not the fault of the messenger. With that in mind I suppose we should not hate Hatch and friends. Since all they are, are paid messengers of the anti-consumer message of corporate society. We can however take issue with them or any representative for doing so and deserting their responsibility to those they serve and those who elceted them. Those which many including Hatch seem to have unfortunatly forgotten completely. As to usenet the reason they don't target it is that (A)It is actually a bit harder to track those that are sharing. (B) Data retention times are super short. (C) Message corruption is so common that it is pitiful. (D) It is a super outdated technology that all but the oldest internet denesins have almost completely forgot. When was the last time you Gophered for Warez? Usenet is just hoplessly out of date and has poor visibility. There is no search function that will bring you tons of results from all sorts of decentralzed sources with near constant avalibility, very low corruption, and good transfer rates all in a simple point and click interface. Not for usenet.

@Neo - I love your answer to usenet. Your view of usenet, as a tech savvy person, suprises me a lot, and makes me very happy. If the general view is Usenet is that cluggy, antiquated, error-prone, etc., then it will never be targeted in all this piracy hoopla. Not to pick a fight but I'd have to say every point you make is incorrect about usenet. Maybe the grizzled old-time techno-geeks who have it all figured out keep it's true value a secret, hush-hush, and a secret society. Maybe the only way to gain entry is for one to alone make the difficult climb to the summitt to join the club and that is why so few see the unique view from the top.

IRC and USENET are lousy as far as searching for specific items go. That is the ONLY negative. A little browsing using a bit of guesswork leads to many hidden treasures. Once you learn how to use USENET and IRC, you'll just smile and wink when people badmouth it. It's good that people say these things - it keeps the RIAA and MPAA at arms length. They can amuse themselves suing P2P users while IRC and USENET keeps chugging along merrily.

The news feeds of many major ISPs are worthless as a P2P substitute. It's not just short retention and missing parts, it's that some simply don't carry many of the binary groups. You'd think in the day of dirt cheap hard drives, gigs for nickles and dimes, that there would be good retention. But, I guess usenet is in low demand by users so it's not a priority.

ISP newsservers, maybe. All commercial servers are different. You normally see two weeks to two months retention, ALL binary newsgroups, and 99%+ completion ratio. Prices on commercial servers has also dropped quite a bit due to competition.