USENET

USENET, in full User’s Network, an Internet-based network of discussion groups.

USENET began in 1979 when two graduate students at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis, came up with a way to exchange messages and files between computers using UNIX-to-UNIX copy protocol (UUCP). Steve Bellovin, a graduate student at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, wrote the software that controlled this first version of USENET. USENET officially began in 1980 in North Carolina with three networked computers, located at UNC, Duke, and Duke Medical School. Many improvements were developed over the years, including the creation of the more efficient network news transfer protocol (NNTP).

Over time, USENET grew to include thousands of discussion groups (called newsgroups), stored on special Internet servers, and millions of users. Users read and write posts, called articles, using software called a newsreader. (At the height of USENET’s popularity, Web browsers and e-mail software typically contained a built-in newsreader, eliminating the need for a separate program.) Each newsgroup covers a specific topic, and most new newsgroups have to go through an approval process. Alternative newsgroups, however, can be created by anyone and can cover nearly any subject. Newsgroups can be either moderated (every article is pre-approved) or unmoderated.

Unmoderated and alternative newsgroups have led to controversy. The lack of oversight and the anonymity of USENET attracted people who posted pornography and other indecent material. In addition, USENET has facilitated the illegal sharing of copyrighted material, such as software, music, and movies. This has led to anti-piracy measures enacted by governments and private companies. Despite the adoption of peer-to-peer (P2P) software, pirates sometimes prefer the anonymous nature of USENET. In the 21st century much online discussion migrated from USENET to social media, but USENET persisted as an alternative to BitTorrent sites for the sharing of large files containing software, video, or audio. The American search engine company Google has added more than 20 years of USENET archives to its service Google Groups.