Giganews, a well know and respected Usenet provider, which has been providing Usenet service since 1994 made some major changes to their Usenet services plans recently. They dropped their monthly limit plans and just offer their Diamond plan now. You can get a year of service for $12.50/month if you prepay. The new pricing structure is as follows.

12 Months Prepaid Subscription – $12.50/month which equals $150/year
6 Months Prepaid Subscription – $14.99/month which is $179.88/year
1 Month Subscription  – $17.99/month

These prices are obviously still high as there are other service providers like Fast Usenet which offer Unlimited access for only $6.95/month. Fast Usenet is also currently offering A promotional offer for $4.95/month too. But it’s nice to see Giganews lower their prices and I’m sure they’ll pull in some new users that like to use their prestigious service.

Perfect 10 must pay $5.6m in legal fees following a failed copyright battle with Usenet provider Giganews . On the heels of a February ruling in which a California Court heavily criticized the adult publisher, this week Perfect 10 was described by a Judge as a serial litigator intended to function as a “tax write-off”.
Adult publisher Perfect 10 has developed a reputation for making a business out of suing Internet services for alleged copyright infringement.

In recent years the company has targeted Google, Amazon, MasterCard and Visa, RapidShare and Depositfiles, plus hosting providers LeaseWeb and OVH.

Perfect 10 has secured private settlements from several of these companies but has never succeeded in a contested court case. The company hoped that a new suit against Usenet provider Giganews would provide a much-needed victory, but the whole thing has turned into a disaster.

In November 2014 a ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California found that Giganews was not liable for the infringing activities of its users and last month Perfect 10 was roundly criticized for multiple failings by the same Court.

“Perfect 10 failed to produce any evidence supporting its claim of direct
infringement,” the Judge wrote, adding that it also “failed to produce any evidence supporting its claim of indirect infringement.”

Read more at Torrent Freak

A federal court in California has ruled that Usenet service provider Giganews is not guilty of copyright infringement, nor can it be held responsible for customers who do pirate content. The case in question was brought by adult magazine publisher Perfect 10 which previously lodged similar complaints against Amazon, Google and RapidShare.
Adult magazine publisher Perfect 10 has made a business out of suing online services for allegedly facilitating copyright infringement.

Over the past several years the company has targeted a dozen high-profile companies including Google, Amazon, Yandex, MasterCard, Visa, RapidShare, Giganews and Depositfiles.

Aside from a few private settlements the company has yet to score its first victory in court. The company was confident that this would happen in their prolonged battle with Usenet provider Giganews, but late last week these hopes were shattered.

On Friday the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California ruled on several motions (1, 2, 3) regarding Giganews’ liability for copyright infringement, as well as the nature of its DMCA takedown process.

In its order the court confirms that there is no evidence that Giganews is directly involved in any infringing practices.

“A claim for direct copyright liability demands evidence that the defendant had a direct hand in causing the infringement. The undisputed evidence before the Court, however, demonstrates that Defendants had no direct causal role in the alleged infringement,” the order reads.

According to the Court, Perfect 10 confuses direct and indirect copyright infringement, as the company has presented no evidence that Giganews employees are engaged in distributing pirated content.

Furthermore, claims of indirect copyright infringement also failed. The Court didn’t accept that Giganews is liable for the alleged copyright infringements of its users, as there is no proof that the company enjoyed direct financial benefit from any Perfect 10 images its subscribers may have distributed….

Read the full article at Torrent Freak