Re: Bogus Usenet outside USA

On Mon, 22 Jun 2026 20:40:18 +0100, [email protected] (Sn!pe) wrote:

>Mr. Man-wai Chang <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> On 6/23/2026 2:10 AM, Sn!pe wrote:
>> > 
>> > Usenet is not under the jurisdiction of United States of America, it is
>> > a worldwide distributed service.  Each News Service Provider is under
>> > the jurisdiction of its own national lawmakers individually.
>> > 
>> 
>> But is the word "Usenet" like a registered trademark, that all messages
>> are supposed to sync with the Usenet in USA? Unless... unless...
>
>Of course not, it's shorthand for "The Users' Network", originally built
>on the crude early Internet that connected universities around the
>world.  It's completely decentralised and every Usenet newsserver
>synchronises with every other newsserver independently of US control.
>

     If a server accesses a group, eventually every other server with
access will all sync, but not in the manner Chang is suggesting. While
difficult, it would be possible to bypass the United States
completely. No one country is necessary to propagate articles.

>> They created a bogus NNTP network and called it "Usenet". :)
>> 
>> The reason is to conduct spy and terrorist operations within USA, as for
>> example. Or maybe to send an agent to USA that behaves like a certain
>> person outside USA, like a double.
>
>That's fantastic nonsense.  
>

     I'm wondering how any NNTP server/network could be bogus.

>You should read about what Usenet is and how it relates to the Internet
>as a whole.
>
>Clue:  What many people think of as "The Internet" is actually just the
>World Wide Web.  There is very much more than that to it.

<Old man mode>

   I 'member when one could use Veronica. And FTP. Some would even use
Archie to search files on public FTP servers. And telnet. Oh how I
loved telnet.
   And we were happy to have them!

</mode>

     The Web has certainly opened up parts of the Internet to more
people. FTP and telnet still exist, though not as common as they were.
I wouldn't even know how to go about using Veronica at this point.
It's been so long, I'd have to re-learn a lot just to be mildly
competent. Presuming one can search gopher, if it still exists, now. 
     I did like telnet. A user could access a mainframe, download
public documents, and either keep them on disk, print out a hard copy,
or both. Much faster, and cheaper, than ordering physical media and
having it shipped. Great for college research papers.
     Most, if not all, of the information is on the web, making telnet
less necessary or relevant.

-- 
Kenito Benito
Strategic Writer, 
Psychotronic World Dominator. 
And FEMA camp counselor.