Pluckit makes it easy to download thousands of pictures and other attachments.  You can find a group that contains pictures of almost anything you can imagine and have a program automatically download those pictures to your hard drive. But, if the latest efforts of the would-be censors and net police get their way there will be no pictures, no sounds, no movies, and maybe not even a USENET. 

That may sound a little far fetched, but there are people actually trying to destroy USENET.  While these extremist have no real chance of doing that, they still can do serious damage.  It is not out of the question that serious damage can be done to our freedoms on the Internet and USENET.  There are already Internet Service Providers who censor the newsgroups for their subscribers. Japan has some very restrictive laws on what can be stored on servers in their country. Then there are countries like China, Saudi Arabia, and others who routinely censor what is available from the Internet for their citizens. 

Can't happen in a free society?  Guess again. Australia recently passed an extremely repressive set of laws that could effectively cause ISP's in that country to stop carrying any newsgroups whose contents might be deemed offensive.  Here in the United States, we have seen efforts like the CDA and CDA II in the past few years.  So far the courts have upheld our rights, but the pressure continues.  More laws are in the works; more ISPs are receiving pressure from various groups to remove newsgroups from their servers.  It is all too easy to sit back and say that it can't happen; that there is no way that the censors will win.  If you see what is happening, you will see the need to take some action. Sure you can switch ISPs.  Right now there are plenty to choose from, but how long will that last?  What happens when the list of uncensored news feeds drops to very few or none at all?  Then it will be too late.  Of course, there is no way to get rid of everything that someone objects to on the Internet.  There will always be ways to find whatever you are interested in.  That is part of the beauty of the Internet.  But the efforts of the censors can make it make the whole process more difficult.  Right now the USENET groups are such a great resource and so easy to use.  Whatever you want to find is there and it doesn't take much effort to find it.  Wouldn't it be a shame to lose that?

So what can we, as individuals do about it?  Actually there are a lot of things.  Here are some suggestions:

1.  Make sure your ISP knows that you appreciate having a full range of news groups carried. 

2.  Every time you change ISPs, one of the questions you should ask is how many newsgroups do they carry and if that includes the alt.binaries (and any other groups that you are interested in).  If they do not, tell them that you will not use their service for that reason. 

3.  If your current ISP announces plans to censor their news feed, then complain loudly!  Send them emails, get on your local ISPs newsgroups and make sure the Internet community knows of their plans; and get as many people as you can to do the same.

4.  Write your congressman or congresswoman. Make sure that he or she knows how you feel about censorship.  Don't just stop with your congressman.  Write your Senator, your state representatives and any other government officials that have the ability to influence the law.

5.  Watch for articles in the news about upcoming censor laws.  See who is supporting the bill, who authored it, and write them.  It does not matter if they represent a different state.  They need to hear from you.

6.  Support those in office who share your views.  Vote, campaign for them, put their signs in your yard when they run for election. 

7.  Write letters to the editor of your local newspaper about censorship.  Mention the Internet in particular.

If we don't all become advocates of freedom from censorship on the Internet, we will lose our rights.