Newzbin (paid usenet search engine) closes due to legal action | Hacker News Reader

Newzbin (paid usenet search engine) closes due to legal action

newzbin.com

37 pointskacy19 comments

Since details seem very lacking between the link and the post in the link, here's a short summary Newzbin via Wikiepdia:

"One of the main technologies produced is an XML-based file format called NZB files, which contain a list of messageIDs that are related to specific postings on Usenet. Through the use of these files, Usenet clients are able to directly download material from Usenet without having to pre-fetch the headers for the target group. Thus, the main benefit of the direct link is improving the efficiency of Usenet binaries. It is technologies such as these that are increasing the popularity of Usenet for file sharing."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NewzBin

It seems their crime is indexing binaries. This does nothing to stop file sharing through Usenet, just ever so slightly impedes access.

I don't know how they get away with this. Google links almost exclusively to copyrighted content, but they're not shut down. Why is Google allowed to exist and other indexes aren't?

A few big differences. Newzbin was charging for access to this catalog of NZB files that overwhelmingly pointed to copyrighted material. Newzbin is located in the UK under the jurisdiction of different copyright enforcement laws. My understanding is, in the UK, the standard is simply knowingly profiting from copyright infringement. Newzbin was making over £1 Million/year. Apparently they also failed to act on take down requests. Seems like a pretty clear cut case to me. It appears the operators of the site did basically nothing to protect themselves and mounted a very weak defense when they were caught.

Google has enough money to pay for lawyers.

Google linking to illegally distributed material is incidental - the only similarity is that TPB/etc linking to legally distributable material is also incidental.

You're comparing Usenet to The Pirate Bay? One is one of the oldest communications standards on the Internet and the other one is The Pirate Bay.

He is comparing torrent indexing sites to usenet indexing sites.

Is there evidence that there was any effort on the part of Newzbin or its users to focus the site's resources on illegal material? My impression of the service was that it indexed a large swath of Usenet impartially. Compare this to The Pirate Bay, whose users ask it to track illegal content more often than not. Unless you have evidence that Newzbin specifically targeted illegal material, he is equating Usenet with pirated media.

Well there's the bit where a court found them to be guilty of doing just that.

Then there's the bit where as a messageboard it's long been superceded by forums and other forms of communication.

Then there's the bit where according to wikipedia over 5 terabytes a day of binaries get posted, and although I have no evidence somehow I don't think that's linux isos.

Then there's popular culture which constantly touts it as some kind of exclusive club 'the man' mustn't learn about because that way it'll stay 'safe' to use.

A court did not find them guilty of doing just that. A court found them guilty of knowingly profiting from copyright infringement. If I sell off my grandfather's estate, which I know to include a fake Rolex, I would also have knowingly profited from copyright infringement, but I don't think you would say that an estate sale is also equivalent to The Pirate Bay.

Very sad day indeed. One of the few online services I was more then happy to pay for.

nzbmatrix is excellent.

http://newzleech.com - I've always used newzleech. They were also shut down for a while but they are back now.

Fuck. I love usnet, I hope this isn't the start of a trend

the first rule of usenet... don't talk about usenet

the second rule of usenet... don't talk about usenet. Thats what killed the big H...

The Big Red H? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotline_Communications

This is stupid. People don't use Usenet because it's too hard to use and costs money, not because people don't talk about it.

Nah, usnet is overrated, themnet is where it's at!

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