Usenet/Newsgroups: the last bastion of freedom online? - And if so, can someone tell us how to get into it?

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Safer yes, easier no. It is safer for two reasons:

1) You Usenet connection is generally encrypted, your connection to the torrent is not. This is why people say you should only use torrents if you're using a VPN.

2) Torrents are peer to peer. You upload to others as you download. Usenet is one way, you only download. When people are sued for tens of thousands of dollars while torrenting, it's done in civil court with the logic that every person you uploaded a part of the file too cost the movie studio a sale. So if you seeded a part of the torrent to 1,500 people and the movie costs $10 on itunes, they argue you cost them $15,000. If you were only downloading, you can at most be found liable for a single copy of the movie in civil court.

By hook or by crook they will get you and by paying for usenet access you're putting your CC and name onto the account downloading everything. I'm surprised that they haven't gone harder on usenet providers.

 

[Never Scored]

By hook or by crook they will get you and by paying for usenet access you're putting your CC and name onto the account downloading everything. I'm surprised that they haven't gone harder on usenet providers.

It's not illegal to have a Usenet account and I have never heard of anyone being charged or taken to court over downloading a single copy of a movie or TV show, it's always for distributing it to other people. The fact that you don't seed it to other people using Usenet is a big deal in terms of what you can be popped for.

You have to understand too that the Usenet provider does not provide the NZB files, you get them elsewhere, I don't even know if it's possible to see what you downloaded on the Usenet providers end of things. It would look like I just downloaded a bunch of random posts.