Usenet on the 'Bleeding Edge' of the 'New Surveillance'

[Beck38]

An article/opinion piece, if you use usenet, should be on your reading list:

http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/06...-surveillance/

The upshot is that you may be (or have been) breaking the law some dim (uh for some of us like last week) time in the past, and the surveillance state has a VERY long memory.

In order to keep out of jail/prison/handing over piles of money, many folks have, like many usenet providers, automated systems to handle 'requests' for information/'takedowns'. The telcos (from AT&T to Verizon to Sprint) have automated both metadata and voice data requests (anyone who thinks the feds aren't just getting the data on calls but the actual voice transfers hasn't been paying attention over the past 20+ years), the automated take-down system that first Astraweb fielded (and others quickly copied) is a piker next to that developed again, over the last years by the major telcos.

The usenet community has responded with varying degrees and attempts at 'hiding' their transfers, usually by encryption of either the file-names, data itself, or both, with 'keys' mostly on private sites. Despite this, there continues to be a wide variety of material completely either in the open, or with those keys contained within the data (and easily recovered by such techniques as par(2) processing).

Of course, as the article points out, many have/are breaking the 'law' on a daily (hourly?) basis, and as the surveillance state becomes more efficient, eventually more will be caught up in it. For usenet, it means that we may see more and more 'takedowns' occur, but as of right now, even with the automated systems in place, it's really a hit and miss proposition, probably more miss that hit but depending on one's likes or dislikes.

But as of now, again considering the continued amount of totally 'in the clear' postings, it's much more of a 'miss'.

[2501]

baa baa blackship

[usersname]

You know it came as even more of a shock to me, that people were "shocked" to find that they may have/are being snooped on!

[DngrMs]

Or live in a country that explicitly allows downloading.

The surveillance probably still exists but it's inconsequential for legal activities (principles of blanket surveillance aside). Nobody in their right mind would upload copyrighted material to Usenet using a traceable account and if you're only downloading (99% of people) then nothing to really fear.

I didn't think there was a law in the good old US of A against downloading either, just sharing (read: uploading) - am I mistaken?

Whether any of this activity should be watched at all is a different discussion.

[justlooking]

I didn't think there was a law in the good old US of A against downloading either, just sharing (read: uploading) - am I mistaken?

I think downloading has always been illegal too, not just uploading. They've usually chosen to go after only uploaders, but that can change anytime.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...g-is-it-legal/

[DngrMs]

I didn't think there was a law in the good old US of A against downloading either, just sharing (read: uploading) - am I mistaken?

I think downloading has always been illegal too, not just uploading. They've usually chosen to go after only uploaders, but that can change anytime.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...g-is-it-legal/

You win 3 points.

That's one of the better articles I've read on this specific subject, thank you.

That's a very interesting take on "reproduction" - subtle but it seems to me very effective. Actually, from an industry perspective that seems like Thor's hammer to me. By downloading you are making a copy therefore you are "reproducing", even if you don't "distribute". Very clever. So you're fucked either way if you're in the US, evidently even if you're just a casual citizen (keywords: PRISM, AL QAEDA, VEGETARIANS SUCK, WASHINGTON, G8, OBAMA, BOOBS, NEW YORK, AIR FORCE ONE, BOMB, POOP, JIHAD).

Okay, so to my original assertion, live in a place where it's legal. As per Canada much of Europe has the 'media tax' which means:

Legally: downloading is permitted
Morally: the royalties are already paid at the physical media level

The monopoly can fuck right off. And the NSA.