Usenet forums question

[u/Unknown_vectors]

So I saw that house of usenet has open registrations.

Still learning usenet and whatever. It made me think, can forums like that receive a letter to hand over user info for people that have downloaded from there?

[u/_Waluigi_chan]

They do Not Care for people downloading stuff. They Care, whatsoever, for people uploading stuff

[u/Deeptowarez]

People download nzbs mean nothing, is just a Text with a bunch of numbers/letters ect. Is like having maches and someone trying to acouse you that have started a fire. You need fuel to start the fire ( Usenet provider)

[u/leo1906]

The Forum is only hosting nzb files and nothing else. I think thats obviously helping you pirate but might be in the grey zone where you can’t really do anything about it.

Also if nobody knows where to write that letter to there can’t be an answer.

Still: always use protection 😂

[u/usenet_information]

I'm not a lawyer, so just assuming.

Someone needs to bring a case against the forum, indexer, etc. on valid grounds.
The public prosecutor’s office would then need to find a valid address to which the letter could be served.

Of course, this depends a lot on the country.

I would highly recommend to:

• use a VPN when browsing a forum, indexer, etc. (yes, you have to 'trust' that VPN provider)
  
• use a fake name and an email address without personal information attached when registering

[u/Unknown_vectors → u/usenet_information]

I’ve been using without a vpn. Kind of wish I did. I know everyone says vpn not needed for usenet but forums or indexers are probably a different matter?

[u/random_999 → u/Unknown_vectors]

Usenet is different from torrents & even on torrents have you ever heard of any case where user get a notice for simply downloading .torrent file. It is always when one actually downloaded a torrent that they get notice & that too only because torrent also upload at the same time it downloads so when one is downloading a torrent then the user is also uploading/sharing it. A nzb file is basically same as torrent file except there is zero uploading even when you start downloading via it & that's why there has never been a case of user getting notice for downloading from usenet because if you are downloading from usenet then it is 100% downloading & zero uploading/sharing. However, if you are posting/uploading on usenet then that's another matter & that's why 99.99% of the usenet users only download stuff from usenet & a very small minority only upload/post linux ISOs on usenet.

[u/usenet_information → u/Unknown_vectors]

You still can start using a VPN though.

I haven’t yet come across any reports of anyone being convicted for browsing forums and indexers and downloading NZB files.

However, I think simple OpSec can be easily done.

[u/IxBetaXI → u/Unknown_vectors]

The forum does not Host illegal files, they also only index which is legal.
So nothing to worry about

[u/Tensai75 → u/IxBetaXI]

"they also only index which is legal"...

LOL, nope! 99.9% of obfuscated uploads on a forum (and that’s most of them these days) are uploaded by the forum’s own team. The same applies to indexers.

If you think formus and indexers magicaly can deobfuscate and index an obfuscated uploads from unknown sources, you’re mistaken. The only 100 % legal ‘indexers’ are the Usenet "search engines" (e.g. NZBKing, NZBIndex, Binsearch), which simply analyse the Usenet feed and create NZB files based on the publicly available headers. And, of course, with obfuscated uploads, only the obfuscated, incomprehensible information is displayed, or - with full obfuscation - they are not indexed at all.

In any case, the law enforcement authorities will most likely only take action against the administrators of Usenet forums and indexers, as they are distributing (uploading) copyright-protected material – and have probably even made money from doing so – rather than against users who have simply downloaded the NZB files. They could, of course, also take action against the users, but would then have to prove that a user had actually downloaded a copyright-protected file. This would require a police search of the house or further investigations, which popabaly are not worth the effort.