Question on the legality of info on particular servers

[BigH]

My ISP is Virgin Media, which has it's own newsgroup server

I haven't bothered using it yet (paying for Usenet.news), but wouldn't VM be in the same boat as other servers (ie have copyrighted content available for people to download)

Just wondering why a legit company would do this?

Also, can anyone tell me the physical size of these premium servers? I can't visualise it. EG Is, say, 'usenet.news' West Coast server some computer in a one-room office, or does it take up the size of a warehouse?

[..:: c.R ::..]

BigH,

Yes, these servers are feeding off of the Usenet primary servers, but no one controls the Usenet. Your ISP might actually keep track of your activities if it wanted too and use it against you some day. i would HIGHLY recommend that you stick w/ your premium service provider and stay safe that way.

As for the actual servers that are hosting this content from lets say, Usenet.News - i would estimate a whole office room, full of rackmounts that can maintain a stable storage amout of on average 20 TB at any given day - with a RAID-10 configuration. So, it would be a pretty big setup and it would be VERY cold in that room too.

Hope that answered your question.

[BigH]

BigH,

Yes, these servers are feeding off of the Usenet primary servers, but no one controls the Usenet. Your ISP might actually keep track of your activities if it wanted too and use it against you some day. i would HIGHLY recommend that you stick w/ your premium service provider and stay safe that way.

.

thanks for that - but would Virgin not have a problem with that

I'm playing devil's advocate here, but for example, there could well be a new film, only just started at the US cinema, which at the same time, is on Virgin's servers.

How can Virgin justify this? Do they not weed out dodgy material?

[Broken]

The easiest way, and the most common way, an ISP would weed out 'dodgy' is not to offer binaries and only text groups.

Usenet is currently growing by about 3TBs a day, and this amount is constantly growing. That's a lot of material to monitor. Factor in all the spam, and the post that aren't so clearly labeled it becomes nearly impossible to filter content. With a ISP's servers' retention measured only in days, it becomes even more pointless to try and filter - versus the cost and time required.

[popopot]

I wouldn't even bother or worry about VM newsgroups. They are crap and not worth the trouble.

[BigH]

I wouldn't even bother or worry about VM newsgroups. They are crap and not worth the trouble.

considering dumping VM as my ISP anyway

they've just announced their new 'traffic-shaping' policy

if you're on the 10MB (soon to be 20MB) package, and download more than 3GB between 4pm and midnight, speeds restricted to 5Mb

(if you're on the 2MB package, the 3GB limit is reduced to 350MB, and speed will be lowered to 1Mb) :O

[popopot]

I wouldn't even bother or worry about VM newsgroups. They are crap and not worth the trouble.

considering dumping VM as my ISP anyway

they've just announced their new 'traffic-shaping' policy

if you're on the 10MB (soon to be 20MB) package, and download more than 3GB between 4pm and midnight, speeds restricted to 5Mb

(if you're on the 2MB package, the 3GB limit is reduced to 350MB, and speed will be lowered to 1Mb) :O

Did not know that!:angry: Thanks for the heads-up.

[chris57]

Big thread on Virgins traffic shaping here:-
http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=518315
Basically if your area hasn't had the 20mb upgrade dont worry, if it has and you have anything but the 20mb package get out!

[4play]

Thank god i never bothered with virgin media. I decided against them after i was blatantly lied to by the sales assistant on numerous things.

1) according to them the office of fair trading has set a 40 gig limit on all broadband connections. so no other provider can do unlimited.

2) I have to purchase their security software otherwise my computer will be broken into and my credit card details stolen. when i explained i run Linux and Norton suite is pointless and wont run she was adement it would.

3)apparently their newsservers have 120 day binary retention.

oh and to answer the original question i know in the usa isp's get common carrier status which means they are not responsible for anything that is sent over their network this would include cache servers which newsgroup servers can be classed as. i would assume there is something similar in place here as well.