Bintube.com - A Media Player for Usenet

Usenet may seem like a stone-age relic of the days before there was internet (hard to fathom, no?), but it is indeed still around. For those of you unfamiliar, Usenet was the first incarnation of the internet forum. Articles posted to Usenet are called newsgroups which are organized into various subjects. Usenet posts are binary which allows for a lot of file sharing fun. In fact, too much fun. A lot of illicit and illegal materials got passed along, drawing the ire of internet police and eventually the take down of many groups. But that’s nothing new. What is new, however, is BinTube a binary newsgroup search engine that just launched a media player and newsreader. Essentially, it’s a download client. It allows you to download a movie in parts, so that you don’t have to wait for the entire thing to download. This is called ‘Usenet streaming’. It integrates with VLC and can play virtually any format. Currently, it’s Windows only, but it’s free to download and try out.

“We are proud to announce the arrival of BinTube Media Player, a Usenet Newsreader unlike any other. Stream DVD, Video, Audio, Images and most other multimedia formats directly from Usenet with one simple click. Download the free trial version and re-discover Usenet Today!”

BinTube is a boon for file swapping and sharing. Usenet’s spread out, and decentralized, so in essence, there’s no head to cut off. And if there were, it wouldn’t matter because it’s not necessary to survive.

What about Mac users? Will BinTube’s media player’s cost be prohibitive? Will it draw the attention of DRM advocates?