RIAA sues Usenet.com

After mixed results in suing P2P hubs like Napster and Grokster, thousands of individual sharers in networks like KaZaA, and websites such as AllofMP3.com, RIAA has come full circle. Its latest salvo targets the Usenet newsgroup, which in terms of Internet time is the Pre-cambrian underbelly of the World Wide Web.

Says RIAA spokeswoman Cara Duckett:

Usenet.com has promoted and advanced an illegal business model on the backs of the music community. It may be theft in a slightly different online form, but the illicit business model of usenet.com is little different than the Groksters of the world…. This business should not be allowed to remain a brazen outlaw that actively shirks its legal obligations.

Links:
Lawsuit PDF
Article on TorrentFreak
Wired News Article

Commentary:
Interesting development, but it certainly took them a while, didn't it? I have used Usenet before on a free service, and the completion rate of binaries wasn't so hot. I wasn't willing to pay for the ability to download stuff off newsgroups when I could get it on Bittorrent. Looks like the decision wasn't so bad.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Oh, have you browsed through newsgroups? It's got a lot of stuff - a whole DAMN lot of stuff.

Usenet.com basically charges you for newsgroups subscriptions - while your ISP may already give you access, they usually don't carry the binaries newsgroups - which is where all the good stuff is located.

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