ISPs: We're limiting our own Usenet groups, not blocking others

An announcement this week by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo that three Internet service providers would "block" sources of child porn has caused a surprising amount of confusion.

First, some news reports assumed that meant blocking, say, overseas Web sites that are deemed illegal. But Cuomo's press release talked only of broadband providers agreeing to "purge their servers of child porn websites"--which they've done for years, making this point mere public relations puffery.

Second, some readers thought that the three companies involved in the deal--Verizon Communications, Time Warner Cable, and Sprint--would block access to Usenet newsgroups hosted elsewhere. That would include blocking pay-per-Usenet services like Supernews, Giganews, and Usenet.com.

As far as I know, that's not the case, and it's worth setting the record straight. What's happening, as we reported on Tuesday, is that the three companies are changing policies about what newsgroups they offer to their customers through their own Usenet servers:

Time Warner Cable will cease to offer Usenet. Sprint is cutting off the alt.* hierarchy, Usenet's largest, which will primarily affect its business customers. A Verizon spokesman said he didn't know details, saying "newsgroups that deal with scientific endeavors" will stick around but admitted that all of the alt.* hierarchy could be toast.

In the future, perhaps, a constitutionally impaired, censor-happy New York attorney general could try to force these companies to block access to Usenet completely (ports 433 and 119, for instance). Or only connections to attorney-general-certified-free-of-alt-groups Usenet servers might be permitted.

But that's not the case today. Let's hope this puts to rest misunderstandings like this reddit.com thread that talked about broadband providers blocking access to Usenet servers elsewhere. For now, at least, that's not happening.

[Update 6/12 11:40 a.m. Verizon has offered more details on what newsgroups will be removed.]

[mrorie]

There's never been a better time to shell out for Giganews if you enjoy using Usenet. The retention alone (which often reaches 30-60 days for binary groups, although good luck waiting to download those headers) far outmatches what most ISPs offer (a day or two at most).

Oh, thats all? Coercing an ISP to block the entire alt. branch? You're kidding right? Thats a really big deal. I love the quote from the ACLU, that its like using a hammer on an ant.

Oh, thats all? Coercing an ISP to block the entire alt. branch? You're kidding right? Thats a really big deal. I love the quote from the ACLU, that its like using a hammer on an ant.

[Pixelslave]

May be it's just me, but I have a feeling that the NYS GA only asks to block the child porn groups, but the ISPs took the chance to cut access to usenets to their liking and place all the blames to the GA office. This fits perfectly to what the ISPs have been complaining -- a small group of users are using more resources (ex, support, bandwidth, storage, etc) than they ought to.

[Stormspace]

Time Warners site goes the extra mile. They lie that the reason is lack of demand for the service and not some back room deal cut with the AG in NY.

[Ray Weigel]

Slippery slope, my friends. Who do they block next is the big questions. Gay sites? Black Power sites? Conspiracy Sites?

They will be blocking the following - for your own good, because you, dear reader, don't now what's good for you like Verizon and Time does:

alt.adoption
alt.arts.poetry.comments
alt.binaries.british.drama
alt.binaries.documentaries.french
alt.binaries.hdtv
alt.binaries.beatles

All gone.

Booooooooo!

It's interesting that Andrew Cuomo has replaced Eliot Spitzer as the District Attorney of New York. Eliot Spitzer was a Harvard educated bulldog/watchdog against malfeasence in the Wall Street Banking industry. He was taken down just before the Federal Reserve announced it would be GIVING ITSELF sweeping new regulatory powers.

It's called a pre-emptive strike. George Bush is famous for them.

Andrew Cuomo steps in saying he doesn't want to 'follow in the footsteps' of Eliot Spitzer - as if he could - so he will be going after the Lobbyists in Albany, New York. Instead, his first move is toward censorship.

The Nazis burned the works of Bertolt Brecht and Hellen Keller. I guess those would fall into alt.german.drama and alt.american.literature.

Won't someone think of the children!!!! What a joke.

Slippery Slope, indeed,

Ray

[Tod Smith]

If they wanted to filter porn just block all groups having to deal with sex at the location.

Time Warner better have a discount on services as they are REMOVING content and contectivity!

[devilsaltarboy]

ISP's have been wanting to limit newsgroups for a long time because of bandwidth concerns. The republican government isnt keen on them because of the existence of left wing political groups within the structure. So what better way to get rid of them than to associate them with child pornography because if you disagree with them it means you support child porn.
This is an issue of freedom of speech, if you limit newsgroups you hinder freedom of speech. At least China admits it blocks the internet, the USA does it in secret. It is simple to stop child porn on newsgroups, simply remove select groups and posts.
I wonder when we will have to do the Nazi solute to the Bush or risk the wrath of the SS

[Tod Smith]

It bothers me to hear about Time Warner testing metering, removing P2P, and now Usenet. Reading your testing banning P2P and now removing Usenet when you could just block access to sex groups sounds more of a method of metering. Usenet can also filter by Server geographic locations like New York!

Why have high speed Internet faster than DSL with a $10 premium and can?t download P2P shareware and other free hard to get content?

None of this makes sence. In schools some access still exist to some adult Internet porn sites. I?m all for removing child porn at the expense of porn, but not for banning the Internet.

[Penguinisto]

s'okay... I think I'll be limiting any consideration I had for Verizon FiOS. I'm past-contract on the Comcast rig, and am at a point where I can shop for the lesser of all evils in regards to broadband. Not like my decision to not bother with Verizon will hurt them all that much, but at least I sleep better at night.

[old3eyes]

If NY State can get away with this then very soon the MPAA, RIAA and every other group will demand the same blocking. We're onm the slippery slope to Usnet censorship..

[Idgaf13]

What we have is an State Attorney General who would like to be Governor and just wants headlines ,same formula as Eliot Spitzer.
I have no tolerance for certain types of behavior and child porn is on that list but
should we burn the libraries because they contain material that is offensive ?
As has been said ,this is a Very slippery slope and is exactly why we have police to investigate these types of crimes.

Coordination with AG's from other States and Countries would have certainly been the
more mature ,well reasoned approach.
With coordination of that type people of that ilk could be identified and shut down permantely
without trampling on our Constitutional Rights.