No Usenet for you!

I got some good news and some bad news.

The bad news: AT&T is no longer providing Usenet access to Internet customers.

The good news: AT&T is no longer providing Usenet access to Internet customers.

Usenet is one of the main features of the Internet - although in recent years it has fallen into ruin, thanks to Nazi bullies, child molesters, government censorship, rogue cancels of posts by users who have the "wrong" opinions, impersonation of users, and spam. Despite this, Usenet - which is public in every sense of the word - does have some potential and still has quite a few users.

When AT&T says it's no longer offering Usenet, I assume that this means through what used to be its wretched Worldnet ISP (which dropped the Worldnet name several years ago). AT&T's launch of Worldnet was enabled by the fascist Telecommunications Act of 1996, which encouraged dominance of all media by large corporations.

Worldnet may have been the worst thing ever to happen to Usenet or the Internet in general. Its users abused Usenet, posted reams of mindless crap under the names of people they disagreed with, and set up phony websites impersonating dissenters. Worldnet refused to yank the accounts of customers who were responsible for these abuses.

Usenet abuse by AT&T patrons was enabled by a cartel of arrogant, loud Usenet admins who refused to cut off Worldnet's access and cheered abuse by its customers. Yet they tried cutting off any ISP that didn't play by their rules - and any user who tried doing anything about the harassment from Worldnet.

As a result, few tears are being shed over AT&T discontinuing Usenet access. If this had happened years ago, the public would have been spared much online harassment.

This should also put an end to the recent spam posts by AT&T about the loss of its Usenet service that have been crossposted to almost every newsgroup in existence. These posts purport to be posted only on AT&T's servers so customers of other ISP's don't see them. But this is a lie. Users of every ISP have found all their newsgroups flooded with these posts.

On the other hand, AT&T is practicing false advertising by dropping Usenet. AT&T advertises full Internet access. Full Internet access means it must include Usenet.

Indeed, AT&T's notice about its new policy grins, "Customers wishing to access Usenet newsgroups may do so by finding a third-party provider, who will charge a subscription fee." But why??? You're already paying for Usenet when you pay for AT&T's services.

Of course, this means that a disproportionate number of Usenet abusers will be fleeced. You're probably thinking that it couldn't happen to anyone more deserving - but this fleecing is a theft by corporate big shots padding the company's bottom line. Much like abusive teen confinement programs scamming major insurance corporations, this proves there's some truth to the adage that there's no honor among thieves.