Napster, Gnutella, Scour, and other file-sharing utilities may get all the press, but there's a more secure alternative: Usenet. One shortcoming of file-sharing utilities is a lack of guaranteed anonymity. And though Gnutella doesn't rely on a centralised server as Napster does, users can still be identified by their IP addresses. File-sharing programs are subject to the same security flaws and viral attacks that can afflict other Internet tools, leaving your system exposed to the digital underworld.

Most of the Usenet and other newsgroups that use the Network News Transport Protocol (NNTP) are loaded with files (a wealth of free, public-domain stuff, but also-caution!-pirated and pornographic material). And unlike with Napster and its ilk, you don't have to turn your PC into a hacker-vulnerable server, though you do still need to take the same precautions you would when downloading any other file. Almost every Internet service includes news-server access, and there's probably at least one newsreader program on your PC already.