For those of you already familiar with usenet... rejoice, there is now an active MAGIC group (alt.binaries.magic). There's been about 20 larger magic videos and 300 smaller (explanation vids) posted in the past month.

For those of you not aware of what usenet is. It's the special secret underground network for the trading of files. It preceded even napster by 10 years; it's the oldest, most exclusive and still relatively unknown trading community. It's not a p2p client like emule or kazaa. It is a totally separate and special network for warez. Everyday there are 800GB of new content added by its participants. Personally I download about 120GB of DVDs and magic each month. The advantage is that its server based, you click on something and download it immediately at your maximum speed (well depending on your usenet provider). For an extra explanation of what usenet is... here's some article excerpts...

Newsgroups Get a New Life Usenet's ranks swell as surfers seek community and free stuff--raising interest in other camps. PCWorld.com Wednesday, June 19, 2002 Seeking refuge from commercialism on the Web, more people are turning back the technological clock to rediscover the Internet's once-vibrant spirit of community. They're going to Usenet. And they're posting a lot. While it's difficult to monitor Usenet's active population, experts estimate its volume of data doubles every 8 to 12 months. Newsgroup visitors worldwide generate more than a half a terabyte of data daily, says one Usenet service provider. Simple text-based posts account for the bulk of this content; but music, software, and movie files--including a large amount of copyrighted material--are posted as well. Usenet isn't accused of facilitating piracy on the scale of some peer-to-peer networks, but neither are its users innocent. And some of their pirated file-swapping may eventually prompt some unwanted attention in Usenet's little corner of the Internet. What Is Usenet? A precursor to the eye-candy of the Web, Usenet is essentially a worldwide bulletin board consisting of more than 90,000 newsgroups. Each covers a topic, from antique cars to beanie babies, from MP3s to adult content. […] Steady Growth Usenet watchers say it's clear that participation and message volume are growing, but the percentage of Internet users who visit newsgroups is steady. Depending on which expert you ask, the portion of surfers coming to Usenet has remained at 5 to 10 percent for years.

Discover Newsgroups File Sharing is Older Than You Think! undated article on about.com Napster, as we knew it, is dead. Morpheus and the other alternatives aren't feeling too well, either. Is file sharing doomed? Absolutely not; you just have to go "back to the future" and rediscover Usenet. If you aren't familiar with this, you are missing quite a lot. Usenet (for "users' network") is one of the oldest and still most vibrant areas of the Net. It consists of tens of thousands of "newsgroups" which are like bulletin boards organized into various topics. Anyone can post a message to a newsgroup, and files (such as MP3 tunes) can be attached to these messages. The terms "Usenet" and "newsgroups" are often used interchangeably, and I will use the term "newsgroup" in this article. A word of caution before you jump in: while newsgroups can be a valuable resource, they are also the most controversial, and often frustrating, area of the Net. Exercise caution in allowing children access to newsgroups, since many of them are of a sexual nature, and some rather bizarre things can be found there. Even though the newsgroups are organized into specific topic areas, there is nothing to prevent someone from posting something inappropriate to the newsgroup. Operators of adult-oriented web sites and other sex-related businesses also "spam" the newsgroups with ads for their services, and often include explicit images. Also, many people can be quite rude and obscene in their posted messages. However, if you are willing to dig deep enough, you can find a lot of useful information, MP3 and other audio files, and music programs in the MP3-related newsgroups. […] So, go ahead and explore! Newsgroups can offer hours of enjoyment.

Searching for info? Try Usenet! These tools can help March 4, 2002 What's the best way to find information on just about any topic under the sun? If you say the Web, you're wrong. The best way by far is Usenet newsgroups, the worldwide community discussion boards. No matter what you want to discuss, you'll find others with the same interest (and answers to your questions). So you want to be a newsgroupie? First you need a really good newsgroup reader, as well as tools for downloading the files you'll find there.[...] They'll help you access servers, organize and search for messages, and manage the download of files you want to store on your computer

What do you need to get on it and download stuff? 1) Well you need a Usenet provider, just like you have an internet provider; there is also a USENET provider. Here's a forum discussing different Usenet providers and which one to choose.

http://forum.newzbin.com/viewforum.php?f=11

2) Then you need a usenet client (like you need an internet browser for the internet). I recommend downloading a cracked version of newsleecher.

3) get a (free) account, not the commercial one, on newzbin.com to be able to check what new stuff to download is out there on usenet.

NOTE: Once you get your ass over to usenet and you're downloading hundreds of GBs of porn (yep we all did it when we first discovered usenet)… don't forget the magic part… Come join us in “alt.binaries.magic” and download away : )

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