Newsgroup download security question

[shaina]

Usenet has no "risk" in the first place, since you only download from a single server and don't have to upload anything back. Without encryption, your ISP is fully able to see all data you exchange with the news server, but since they won't be struck with copyright letters in the first place, they have better things to do.
Note that this only applies to downloading from newsgroups. Uploading (posting articles) is a different thing and has been prosecuted in the past.

Sorry Anon you are right we are on the same page buddy my bad!!.. I was really focusing on your first point and didn't pay attention to your agreement of using the SSL offered with provider.....

Saying that, funny now that they are not really going after NZB listing sites either, if i remember a few got shut down because of piracy, now that is not happening??

That is a good thing

[anon]

Saying that, funny now that they are not really going after NZB listing sites either, if i remember a few got shut down because of piracy, now that is not happening??

Those shutdowns were fairly surprising. Usenet was always a small target because you have to pay for a news provider and the learning curve is somewhat higher than say, BitTorrent. However, in the last years the alternatives have improved (speeds on public torrents and file hosts don't suck, and there's Kodi), and when you combine that with having to deal with obfuscation and archive passwords, maybe it's an even smaller target than in the past now

[shaina]

Saying that, funny now that they are not really going after NZB listing sites either, if i remember a few got shut down because of piracy, now that is not happening??

Those shutdowns were fairly surprising. Usenet was always a small target because you have to pay for a news provider and the learning curve is somewhat higher than say, BitTorrent. However, in the last years the alternatives have improved (speeds on public torrents and file hosts don't suck, and there's Kodi), and when you combine that with having to deal with obfuscation and archive passwords, maybe it's an even smaller target than in the past now

True to all Anon, Torrents are much easier to Download, but i just dislike the Seeding Crap and having to share bandwidth, And the beginning it was tricky with Usenet, until you tweaked everything to make it easier from start to finished file...Like MacGyverf i liked to control everything from the download, what files i extracted and then renaming for file HDD purpose, but now i just use SABnzb and let it do everything, and really changing to SSHD, i get zero lag or freeze ups on multitasking . But i wish you lived closer and could make a house call to Tweak Windows 7, i know i could get even more efficiency/speed out of my pc....

When it came to the NZB lawsuits...... What was really strange and controversial about that, there really is no storage of any files, really it is just direct link to files that are on a public access server farms.. Then the thought of a few of those that were charged and shut down were not only funding a NZB site but also selling Usenet services as well, and really i think they just put so much fear and legal costs to the owners they crumpled, again i don't blame them in some senses, but at that time there was only a few really good alternatives (for what i was looking for), and some were hard to get into, now it is flooded with half decent NZB sites out there , including the one here (Great work Cabby, and Toriless of course).... And like we agree and i think you have good points why they stopped going after the bigger NZB sites...
I am glad about that especially now that i am happy with the ones i pay/use.......
As for the 4k Ultra HD remuxes or full blown rips (They are massive size files!!!), there is a ton out there and i know Cabby and Toriless already do a great job and enough, but they are becoming popular, and i know this by seeing the hits/downloads on the private sites i go too.. I also see Plex and UMS has made some major updates to stream the rips with ease and efficiently....

Just saying my last point

[Caballero]

Saying that, funny now that they are not really going after NZB listing sites either, if i remember a few got shut down because of piracy, now that is not happening??

Those shutdowns were fairly surprising. Usenet was always a small target because you have to pay for a news provider and the learning curve is somewhat higher than say, BitTorrent. However, in the last years the alternatives have improved (speeds on public torrents and file hosts don't suck, and there's Kodi), and when you combine that with having to deal with obfuscation and archive passwords, maybe it's an even smaller target than in the past now

I always figured it's because we don't actually post anything illegal (no actual content posted, just a sign with an arrow), and if push came to shove you could probably construct a 1st Amendment case to defend what we're doing (isn't creating and posting an NZB just "speech"?).

Actually uploading the stuff into the newsgroups is an entirely different beast, of course. Wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole.

[anon]

But i wish you lived closer and could make a house call to Tweak Windows 7, i know i could get even more efficiency/speed out of my pc....

I once offered to give you all the documentation I've been saving up since I first installed Windows 7, and got no response But if you're interested, the offer still stands.

When it came to the NZB lawsuits...... What was really strange and controversial about that, there really is no storage of any files, really it is just direct link to files that are on a public access server farms..

I always figured it's because we don't actually post anything illegal (no actual content posted, just a sign with an arrow), and if push came to shove you could probably construct a 1st Amendment case to defend what we're doing (isn't creating and posting an NZB just "speech"?).

I was going to mention the "not files, just pointers to files" defense in my previous post, but I'm not sure how effective it is nowadays. I mean, torrent indexes hosted .torrent files (which are metadata), and now they only have magnet links (which are meta-metadata), but this hasn't stopped law enforcement from going after them...

In the end, I guess it all depends on what the law says where your server(s) and domain are registered, where the site staff lives, and who has the best lawyers.

[cwf]

Thanks Good to know.

[bbneo]

Thanks for debating this topic. I was wondering if the VPN was really that useful if we are already using SSL encryption.

[afragler]

Just a suggestion, if you're going to download anything that is remotely shady you should do it through a vpn. a logless random ip assigment vpn. This applies to anything you download irc,newgroups,https,torrent,vps, streaming content. And good antivirus, antimalware, good antiintrusion (or a linux machine).

[anon]

a logless random ip assigment vpn. This applies to anything you download irc,newgroups,https,torrent,vps, streaming content.

Of all the filesharing methods you mention, I believe that using a VPN for anything other than torrents is overkill. IRC is not really a target due to its small userbase, relative difficulty of use and the "specialized" content shared within. And the others are download-only, therefore the risk is much smaller if non-existent, as discussed in this thread.

[Jdm2005]

I only use a vpn when accessing torrents, and have in the past hard a warning from my isp when I hadn’t got one, never had any issues with usenet.