Astraweb removing UFC content

[Sometwo]

You have to check with your NZB indexing site on how to go about setting up a RSS feed on their site. You should be able to set up a watch list or bookmark for "UFC". Your usenet client can check for new "UFC" stuff on your RSS feed every 15 minutes or so.

I've been using newsgroups for a while and never noticed this feature, thanks!

[Sometwo]

If astraweb is complying with DMCA and removing content, then couldn't they also comply and give IPs of people who downloaded a movie?

[mjmacky]

If astraweb is complying with DMCA and removing content, then couldn't they also comply and give IPs of people who downloaded a movie?

Nope

[Sometwo]

If astraweb is complying with DMCA and removing content, then couldn't they also comply and give IPs of people who downloaded a movie?

Nope

And why is that?

[mjmacky]

Nope

And why is that?

Very likely they don't have that information on hand. Upload logs are one thing (tracking spam, illegal posters and general abuse), but they aren't required to keep download logs (that I've seen) so there's no point in keeping them. There could be a difference between block accounts and subscription plans, don't know how they track data usage for block accounts.

[Sometwo]

And why is that?

Very likely they don't have that information on hand. Upload logs are one thing (tracking spam, illegal posters and general abuse), but they aren't required to keep download logs (that I've seen) so there's no point in keeping them. There could be a difference between block accounts and subscription plans, don't know how they track data usage for block accounts.

I'm not sure about the law, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were required to keep logs. I could of sworn a long time ago that astraweb on their main page used to say anonymous, no logs kept. It doesn't say that anymore.

Excellent Price - Best Value for Money Usenet
SSL Enabled - Free SSL on all accounts
Completion - High number of peers. 99%+ completion
Speed - Multiple Links to High Quality Providers
Connections - 20 Simultaneous Connections
Retention - Our retention is quoted for ALL groups
Posting Propagation - Excellent propagation of posts with many peers
US & EU Farms - Serverfarms in the US and EU
We Run Our OWN Servers - We do not resell. We have total control over our own servers and farms.

Did they remove that or am I mistaken?

edit: I may of confused astraweb with another NGP. Archive.org says in july 11 2010 "Uncensored News - No Discussions are Censored" and now that part is gone, however.

[mjmacky]

http://www.news.astraweb.com/privacy.html

Item #9

9) We do not store any specific information about your downloads. We only store the amount downloaded, date and access IP address for accounting purposes.

That answers that.

[Sometwo]

I guess so, thanks!

[mjmacky]

I guess so, thanks!

[zot]

I think ditching nzbs would really end the problem. ... Maybe a new header naming scheme could be used to encrypt or obscure the name. Maybe encryption mechanisms can be built into newsreaders.

The problem with the NZB is that it is an open standard and the usenet articles that it's composed of are listed in plain text and therefore easily readable by anyone.

A fairly simple solution would be to create a new NNTP 'release' protocol that encrypts the "NZBs" -- so only the news client can ever know the actual Message IDs that compose a file release -- a client that would by necessity also need to refuse non-SSL servers so the connection stream could not be sniffed.

A properly encrypted "NZB" system like that would be virtually bullet-proof and completely immune to any possible takedown -- the only thing the anti-P2P bad guys could do would be to attack the sites that index these encrypted "NZBs" -- but this kind of encrypted "NZB" system could be many years away.