Newsgroups

Newsgroups were a marvelous innovation of their day. Connecting several people via the Internet to share all various types of data. Today they have taken on a forum for piracy and other various sorts of things, unless you're Canadian, then it's not illegal. Usenet is the most recent form within the past years. If you've ever used a forum before, think of it like that, only you transfer files. The interesting thing about it, however, is you have to pay for newsgroups. Which means that for an account you have a registered name to everything you download or upload, and yet somehow they have never been shut down. Not only that, but with a lot of ISP's it's free with your internet access. The thing i find noteworthy about this, is that all form of piracy are interesting. This one is by far the weirdest. People sacrifice the never paying for anything, with paying for a subscription to gain insane amount of speed to download with. Personally i find piracy aids in the purchase of some things. The type of people who pirate simply never want to spend their money on things that are a waste of time, and today unfortunately most forms of media are standard and unoriginal. The cool thing about it however, is if you truly enjoy a product, you will go out and buy it. I've seen and heard this happen thousands of times from people who pirate everything. And a lot of them have Usenet accounts. I think the main points about all this is that simple little things that formed at the start of the Internet, newsgroups, are helpind to aid in what the legal system thinks is theft. It's an interesting paradox, but people who pirate, dopay for things that are worth it. So it's really an incentive for a gaming company, a movie studio, a record label, ect. to truly be original and break the mold. Enhancing every one's entertainment experience, and not just some one's wallet.