SBC/Pacbell To Filter 90% Of alt.binaries Groups

An Anonymous Coward writes: "I received an email from PacBell.net (Pacific Bell's ISP), stating that they're transitioning their usenet services to Prodigy. They're making a few changes along the way." He excerpts from the email: "In addition, after evaluating possible copyright infringement issues, newsgroup usage and the cost of providing newsgroup access, we will no longer offer some alt.binary newsgroups. For a list of alt.binaries that will no longer be offered, please refer to our FAQ at http://global.pacbell.net/usenet_update.html.' Note that the link currently doesn't go to the right place. After telephoning SBC, I was informed that upwards of 90% of the alt.binaries.* groups are going to be blocked."

Uncensored newsgroup access

[Jish]

I realize this story is about fighting censorship and arguing about how big business is taking away our freedoms...

However, a good alternative for newsgroup access I have used for a while is:

uncensored-news [uncensored-news.com]

The upgrade regularly and I have never had problems accessing them or finding a group. And now they have a special server just for multimedia and binaries...

Just a thought for any of you who want a solution other than an uphill battle with your ISP...

Josh

so does google

[dobratzp]

Of course the alt.binaries groups contain a lot of warez/pr0n and gernally questionably legal material. However, there is the occasional alt.binaries.calc-ti, but even google [google.com] doesn't have the alt.binaries.* hierarchy. This is probably because of it's massive size yet thorough lack of textual information.

Bandwidth Capped on Newsgroup Access

[PhotonSphere]

It seems to me that SBC has been looking for a reason to cut access to binary newsgroups for some time now. Nearly a year ago, they decided to cap d/l rates for their DSL customers to 128k, a far cry from the speeds of 1.5Mbps advertised as the overall speed of the service. This came (to me at least) with no warning and seemed to go against the quality of service I had been promised.

This is an ugly trend...and (hopefully) may help pave the way for alternate ISPs and grassroots movements such as Guerilla Nets and FreeNets.

Re:Uncensored newsgroup access

[great throwdini]

Interesting licensing terms [uncensored-news.com] over at uncensored-news [uncensored-news.com]:

17. ACCEPTANCE

"Bookmarking this web site shall constitute an implicit acceptance of the foregoing terms herein set."

Having dragged the link from the parent post [slashdot.org] onto my desktop, I somehow managed to accept terms to a service about which I had not even read. We do live in strange times, don't we? :\

Seriously though, no refunds, hostile chargeback policy, etc. It's being run as an 'adult service' but if it nets me a better feed of the rec.games.roguelike groups, maybe I'll...

Re:Conduit/Content

[Amoeba]

At an ISP I once worked at I was involved in establishing newsgroup policies and the possible legal consequences and this is my take based upon the legal advice and discussions I had at the time. Unless there have been some changes in the past few years that I've missed, the minute an ISP changes their terms of service to explicitly block access based on the legality of content they technically lose their "common carrier" status protection and can be held liable etc.

Unfortunately these kinds of cases never get to court in any way that would force a change of this type of crap because of the purposefully vague and specious language describing what exactly you're paying for in that same damned ToS.

Basically it still boils down to whether your lawyer(money) can beat up their lawyer(money), though the size of the ToS "backdoors" & loopholes can help :)

Re:Uncensored newsgroup access

[tiny69]

Yes but, .... that's not free. The monthly fee I pay my ISP includes access to their news servers. I wouldn't want to pay more just to access USENET.

This also sets a bad precedent. If one ISP filters newsgroups in an attempt to stop possible Copyright violations, how long will it be before others follow suit? How long will it take before the RIAA starts threatening ISP's with lawsuits because they allow their users access to forums known to violate Copyright protections?

The sad part is the RIAA will do this all in the name of the DMCA! Which means the ISP's will have no choice but to comply or face an ugly lawsuit...

If this keeps up, the DMCA will make it illegal to even access the internet!!

Re:Conduit/Content

[DennyK]

If they were actually filtering *traffic* based on content, that might leave them liable for all kinds of fun lawsuits. But in this case, they are not filtering traffic, they're just refusing to offer some newsgroups on their own news server. Essentially, they're only changing what content they are offering on their own server, not what kind of content passes over their lines...and no matter what the reasons, that should not affect (legally) their responsibility for general traffic. I'd guess PacBell/SBC customers can use any other news servers out there and still be able to access groups that aren't carried on Prodigy's.

Thank goodness RoadRunner still offers most, if not "all", of the alt.binaries.* tree... ;)

DennyK

Re:Uncensored newsgroup access

[acceleriter]

If you're going to pay for news, consider Easynews. They (unlike your description of Uncensored News) don't come off like assholes, have customer support reps available by phone, email, and ICQ (!), and charge a reasonable price for their service. I have no affiliation with them except as a satisfied customer.

If you just want to read text groups, I imagine (though haven't personally checked) that groups.google.com has a fairly complete feed. The downside is that you can't use a traditional NNTP client. However, their web-based threaded reader isn't all that bad.

Re:Conduit/Content

[Anonymous Coward]

Unless there have been some changes in the past few years

DMCA, Napster et al.

Things have changed, brother. Common carrier status don't mean jack anymore. If you can restrict the flow of copyrighted materials, you are legally bound to now.

This has been a long time coming

[satsuke]

I dumped SBC* services months ago explicitly because of usenet service.

And it wasn't because of alt.bin* style groups. Just plain discussion groups were affected to.

Here is a short timeline of SBC / PACBELL usenet service.

Once upon a time SBC operated several usable usenet servers.

Each one had acceptable retention times and a good varity of groups to see.

news.swbell.net
news.pacbell.net
news.flash.net

There was also a server in prodigy-land that had a horrible retention rate and skipped articles left and right .. this was the one I never used.

Than SBC instituted rate capping at 128K down .. there was a lot of activity in the swbell support newsgroups about this .. most along the lines of talking about class action lawsuits stemming from a rate cap on a service that was explicitly guaranteed at 384k for DSL service

SBC than noticed that customers were leap frogging from server to server. In order to pull together each and every single piece of a multipart binary this was required sometimes.

Up until this point the service was still relativly stable .. even though with the rate caps I had to start downloading stuff before work and finish up when I got home

Than there was some large crash .. all of the indexs were corrupted and no usenet service for several days. Tech support knows nothing about usenet

After his point there was barely a single multipart article that came across properly.

So they're service became unusable and at that point I left as soon as my contract expired.

Now I'm using RR in Kansas City .. 45K upstream .. around 2 meg down and a usenet service that is usable enough to follow discussions and follow binaries without spamming groups with repost request.

This cut of content is just par for the course for SBC. Although I don't think it will affect many people though .. everyone I know who is still on SBC moved on to commercial usenet providers a long time ago.

oh .. and Time Warner KC / RR jacked they're prices up to $45 .. now that SBC has backed off a bit from advertising they're service.

funny thing .. my SBC DSL connection has been disconnected since March .. but when I turn the DSL modem on I still get ATM / DSL link contenuity .. must not be to awful busy if they can left former customers still take a port on the DSLAM>

Satsuke

The email announcement

[acceleriter]

From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2001 11:20 AM
Subject: Attention Usenet Newsgroup Users - Important Information

Dear Southwestern Bell Internet Services Usenet Newsgroup Member,

If you are currently using Southwestern Bell Internet Services Usenet
Newsgroups, we have very important information for you. As you may know,
Southwestern Bell Internet Services has teamed with Prodigy®, a leading
national Internet service provider, as the Southwestern Bell Internet
Services preferred source of Usenet Newsgroups and other Internet related
services.

On July 25, 2001, your newsgroup server, which is currently hosted by
Southwestern Bell Internet Services, will begin a transition to Prodigy. To
continue using Usenet Newsgroups after the final transition date of August
25, you must update your newsgroup software with new server information.

For instructions on how to change your Usenet software, please visit
http://global.swbell.net/usenet_update.html. After August 19, your current
settings will no longer be available.

In addition, after evaluating possible copyright infringement issues,
newsgroup usage and the cost of providing newsgroup access, we will no
longer offer some alt.binary newsgroups. For a list of alt.binaries that
will no longer be offered, please refer to our FAQ at
http://global.swbell.net/usenet_update.html.

For Southwestern Bell Internet Services customer support regarding Usenet,
please call:

* 1-800-NET-HELP for Dial-up Access Customers
* 1-877-SBC-DSL5 for DSL Internet Customers

Thank you for using our service and for your attention to this matter. See
you on your new Usenet Newsgroup service!

Sincerely,

The Southwestern Bell Internet Services Team

Copyright 2001 Southwestern Bell Internet Services, Inc All rights
reserved. Southwestern Bell and Southwestern Bell Internet Services, Inc.
are registered trademarks of SBC Communications Inc. or its subsidiaries.
Prodigy is a registered trademark of Prodigy Communications L.P. Other names
may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

ISPs, Usenet and Copyright

[SMWinnie]

The law has changed fairly recently for ISPs with regard to the material they carry. A distinction has always been drawn between a common carrier (the post office isn't responsible for your hate mail; the phone company isn't responsible for your threatening calls) and another provider that has more control over the material.

The only case I know of that hits the issue head on is ALS Scans v. RemarQ, from the Fourth Circuit. http://www.loundy.com/CASES/ALS_v_RemarQ.html

It's a good read. Flip through it and watch Judge Niemeyer try unsuccessfully to understand Usenet...

Just cancelled my PACBELL account

[Archfeld]

There service has GONE way down hill in the last 6 months. I've been a dsl customer for almost 28 months and since the prodigy merger things really SUCK. My line is slower, support IS EVEN MORE CLUELESS, and the things that used to function no longer DO. I have switched over to Astound cable, no Static IP but they answer the phone and actually follow up on calls. PacBell service is the WORST in ANY company I've ever dealt with in ANY field. I would rank them right up there with the IRS and the DMV. For your own sanity and protection, STAY AWAY FROM PACBELL.