Are newsGroups legal?

[NuzzyFuts]

I want to get some opinions on newsgroups. How is it possible for some news group servers to host files like movies and software for people to download? Is a portion of the fee donated to the copyright owners, or is there a loophole that allows them to host the files that people upload on thier own? Thanks for your help.

[ErnieK]

Newsgroups ARE leagal.

SOME of them give the facillty to download ILLEGAL software.

SOME of them offer the download of free & shareware software whick is not illegal.

[Paleo Pete]

Newsgroups themselves are legal, they've been around longer than chatrooms, ICQ, forums such as this one...everything but IRC came along later, and newsgroups may have been around before IRC too. Bulletin boards were the forerunner of both newsgroups and email. (I may be wrong there, email may have originated before bulletin boards, but I'm not positive.)

The files available for download are another story entirely, while the newsgroup itself may be perfectly legal to set up and run, a lot of the files posted are not legal to distribute. Usually they specifically disclaim all responsibility for the files posted, since the newsgroup itself would find it difficult to weed out the less-than-legal stuff, and has no control over what users choose to post.