The Usenet Stole My Content!

Surveys have shown that pornography accounts for more than 80% of Usenet bandwidth. From the basic ASCII formats of scanned pictures back in the days to gigabytes and even terabytes of content uploaded and shared daily these days, Usenet, in effect, has posed stiff competition against legitimate porn sites. This competition appears to be lopsided in favor of Usenet offering free binary content to countless users against porn sites that require membership fees. But how do we strike a deal that reaches a compromise and benefits both parties?

This acrid relationship of Usenet is not unique to porn sites alone. As newsgroups evolved from being simple text exchanges to uploading and downloading binaries—from images and mp3s to software and videos—this online community has attracted controversy left and right. No doubt about it, Usenet is one of the most sheltered means to share and download content. Even though it costs a few dollars to gain access each month to a top Usenet provider, many believe it is bang for the buck with its fast download speeds and a wide array of content to choose from.

In 2007, the MPAA (Motion Pictures Association of America) and even RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) sortied its way into the piracy issue by filing lawsuits against certain Usenet search programs. However, it appears that the case presents no teeth and no major news about this dabbling has sprung up to this day. For one, Usenet is not like Napster, or even Kazaa or Limewire. Newsgroups are decentralized networks scattered all over the world and going after a search engine or binary sharer would be a gargantuan task. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, on the other hand, offers a legal safeguard, or "safe harbor" for search engines that answer a certain set of rules, as well as the capability for copyright owners to ask that links to copyrighted content be deleted.

Porn sites then could seek the help of outfits offering encryption technology to its images and videos. One example is TriMark that embeds a digital fingerprint in content which can uniquely identify the original buyer of the file even after countless copying and ripping. The company then scans the Usenet for files that contain the unique security code and this process could lead to the origin of the file. While this is all for good measure, this security mechanism does not come without loopholes. One, an embedded code could still be stripped off the content making it untraceable. Two, the entrenched data actually contains personal information of the purchaser such as location and email address, and this poses serious privacy issues for the buyer. Maybe because of these factors, companies like TriMark, while still existing until today, have not made a serious dent in piracy since its introduction in 2007.

Perhaps it is just a matter of time when someone else will follow the footsteps of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in going after Usenet. He championed the cause against child pornography, and rightly so. However his case brought down countless other legitimate newsgroups. When it comes to pornography in general, no politician would be up in arms in protecting the welfare of porn sites versus Usenet. It is a free for all battle and not even MPAA would enter the scene considerably. After all, Usenet also continued to exist as a means for its enthusiasts to veer away from the commercially-centric Web.

The relationship between Usenet and porn sites need not be combative. Newsgroups being a repository of large amounts of adult binaries have the capacity to drive huge number of traffic to mainstream porn. Porn sites can label their content with their logos and allow them to be uploaded on Usenet, making this a form of promotion for them. When Useneters get to view the content in their respective groups and like what they see, they just might make that click and look for more content at this specific porn site. As a matter of fact, some porn sites have their own newsgroups and frequently update information and content on Usenet. They are actually advertising their brand there.

Useneters, while getting free binary content, actually pay membership fees to providers. This online society is a paying community who can, in return, purchase access to porn sites. It is a significant market just waiting to be tapped. As opposed to other websites or peer to peer networks that simply copy content and become direct competitors, Usenet can serve as the advertising mouthpiece of porn sites if given the proper avenue. This online community is a central marketplace where all adult binary newsgroups are gathered, and targeting this niche will be a veritable profit maker for porn sites.

By: JV Valdez

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JV Valdez writes about technology--its development and innovations, and how people respond to them. He also writes about travel and political affairs.
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