3 ms·

He is comparing torrent indexing sites to usenet indexing sites.

• chc 16y ago
  Is there evidence that there was any effort on the part of Newzbin or its users to focus the site's resources on illegal material? My impression of the service was that it indexed a large swath of Usenet impartially. Compare this to The Pirate Bay, whose users ask it to track illegal content more often than not. Unless you have evidence that Newzbin specifically targeted illegal material, he is equating Usenet with pirated media.
  • benologist 16y ago
    Well there's the bit where a court found them to be guilty of doing just that. Then there's the bit where as a messageboard it's long been superceded by forums and other forms of communication. Then there's the bit where according to wikipedia over 5 terabytes a day of binaries get posted, and although I have no evidence somehow I don't think that's linux isos. Then there's popular culture which constantly touts it as some kind of exclusive club 'the man' mustn't learn about because that way it'll stay 'safe' to use.
    • chc 16y ago
      A court did not find them guilty of doing just that. A court found them guilty of knowingly profiting from copyright infringement. If I sell off my grandfather's estate, which I know to include a fake Rolex, I would also have knowingly profited from copyright infringement, but I don't think you would say that an estate sale is also equivalent to The Pirate Bay.