I've done some Googling and honestly, it's a little overwhelming knowing what Usenet provider to use, where to get quality indexers and which download client would be the best.

If anyone has any resources or advice to help me sail the Usenet seas I would be eternally grateful!

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[–] sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al 11 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Do you tunnel your usage through a VPN?

[–] Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 23 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Nope. Usenet is quite safe legally, afaik, since you're not uploading/seeding anything. IANAL, though.

[–] refalo@programming.dev 8 points 6 months ago (2 children)

yea that's not true technically. the only reason usenet hasn't been dismantled by infinite court cases is its obscurity.

[–] fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Is this really true?

The basic premise is that you're not infringing copyright if you're only downloading.

You're saying that's incorrect?

[–] cobra89@beehaw.org 4 points 6 months ago

Yeah that's not correct, downloading pirated content is still illegal, but it makes no sense for copyright holders to go after 1 person for a movie that costs $20.

You go after the uploader strictly because you can sue for damages for each person/ip they uploaded to. It's just strictly a monetary and legal thing as to why only the uploaders are taken to court.

Pretty sure even if you block uploads with your torrent client you will still get a DMCA for downloading from a public tracker.

[–] refalo@programming.dev 3 points 6 months ago

In the US? Absolutely.

Downloading or uploading any copyrighted content without permission is not legal. It's the same in most countries.

[–] Gailthesnail2@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Usenet still uses SSL so ISPs can't see what you download

[–] refalo@programming.dev 1 points 6 months ago (3 children)

No but content owners could directly DMCA stuff that's hosted on usenet, they just don't.

[–] mister_newbie@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 months ago

No but content owners could directly DMCA stuff that's hosted on usenet, they just don't.

They absolutely do, which is why the vast, vast majority of content is obfuscated, necessitating the use of indexers.

[–] lud@lemm.ee 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yes but that doesn't affect any of us.

Of course it is illegal for the providers.

[–] refalo@programming.dev 0 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

It could if that DMCA or some court order resulted in revealing your residential IP, and then your monopoly ISP terminates you. SSL/TLS would not save you there.

[–] Petter1@lemm.ee 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

How can data snippets with ID be copyright infringement? The hoster can not know which snippet is for what and is therefore bot able to Block Upload of copyright data And in the other hand, indexer only provide a nzb files, which are as well no copyright infringement Combine this with a country where only uploading copyright protected files to the public is forbidden (like Switzerland) and you are pretty save

[–] refalo@programming.dev 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

can not know

Yes they can, the articles are named with the filename of the content that's in it, and the data itself is unencrypted. But I wasn't even talking about blocking uploads, just having content providers be able to take down existing content.

But get this, it's even worse in Switzerland because the provider is also now forced to keep that same content from reappearing! This is called the "stay down" rule.

country where only uploading is forbidden

not exactly: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/sci-tech/downloading-and-uploading_what-the-new-swiss-copyright-law-means-for-consumers-of-pirated-online-content/45305402

downloading computer games and software remains a crime

[–] Petter1@lemm.ee 2 points 6 months ago

A yea, it seems that I misunderstood the part with hosting the file in parts with only ID.. But you would have to let a file be deleted on all usenet servers in short time to kill a file since it will only be removed from the cache of the server you send the dmca claim to (similar to torrent basically)

And yea, pc software incl. some games are illegal due to licensing agreements

[–] gingerman@lemmy.ca 10 points 6 months ago

Most Usenet providers offer secure connections so I don't know if it's necessary, but I use a VPN.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I do. Just in case.
Ironically through my seedbox provider :p

[–] sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I thought seedboxes were a torrent thing?

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

They are.
But my provider offers a VPN through the same connection.
Last time I looked most of seedbox and usenet providers offered this as a perk.
And the speed is very good. This time I don't even need a VPN service. Though I am limited to one country I don't have an issue with the limitation.

[–] sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Thanks. I feel like since I started posting on Lemmy, I've been like a bottomless pit trying to learn everything I can. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with me.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 months ago

My pleasure :)
Feel free to ask.

So far my card house of my Debian NAS + docker + traefik reverse proxy + *arrs hasnt fallen together so I am doing something right though I have still much to learn as well.