In The Face Of Censorship Usenet Providers Up The Ante

With the Protect IP, and the Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers, (PCIP) Acts being considered by legislators, the recent order for an ISP to block a Usenet provider, Australia's considered blocking, and all the other censorship issues that are just starting to surface at this time, it's no wonder that people are turning to Usenet providers to get the information they need. And, seemingly in response to their new found popularity, the providers are responding extremely well. Instead of backing down because of the British court orders, at least three Usenet providers have announced retention increases.

Astraweb, NewsDemon, and Newshosting have all announced retention rates of up to three years. Yes, you read that right...not only is this a fact, but Giganews has started giving away all kinds of goodies to their members in a contest. It seems that Usenet providers are willing to stand up and show the world that they have content other than the stuff that the court systems and legislators of the free world are accusing them of. And, that there is more to them than meets the legal eye. Now many providers are attempting to (if they haven't already) boost their service, increase their retention, and add features like online storage.

If you haven't figured it out by now, the competition among the Usenet providers is friendly...but fierce. If one provider starts to up the ante,almost every competitor that they have will attempt to meet or beat it. That makes things a little easier for you...the providers are eager to please. Newshosting announced that their binary retention rates are up to at more than 1095 days now...and the prices are affordable. NewsDemon and Astraweb have made similar announcements... with 1095+ days of retention for each of the providers. They have been rolling out many new features almost every month for a while now, so you need to check Usenetreviewz to find out what the latest deals and features are.

Giganews announced a contest that their members can participate in by simply tweeting on twitter, liking on facebook, or joining on YouTube. Their YouTube channel is, by the way, one of the many new ways they have started interacting with their members. Other recent service upgrades are the Dump Truck online storage, improvements to the Mimo Usenet browser, (added features,) and improvements to their VyprVPN. Giganews is one of the best and most popular Usenet providers available, yet they still stay affordable. And, with packages ranging from $10.00 to $35.00 they are sure to increase their popularity.

The British courts recently ordered one of the largest internet providers in Europe to exclude Newzbin from their indexes...in essence adding them to the blacklist of pornographic sites that are blocked by the provider. There are many legal reasons for the censor, and to be sure, the internet need policing from the nefarious types that lurk in the shadows there...but censorship isn't the answer. Deputizing ISP's as internet police seems to be a good answer, but in the end the cost of that censorship will be passed on to you, the consumer, and the ISP's are infallible. One filtering service, Cleanfeed, has blacklisted sites citing (at best) weak reasoning. The U.S. and Australia are considering similar measures to make sure the internet is safe for consumers, and there are few options that the average user will have to circumvent these restrictions...so we can find that album description on wikipedia.