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Hackers Set To Bring Newzbin Back Online

After Newzbin closed following a debilitating legal battle with several Hollywood studios, rumors began to surface that during a time when the site was still up, it had been hacked and the source code and databases ‘stolen’. Now a group called Team R Dogs/Newzbin2 has contacted ex-Newzbin members with news that the site will soon be reborn.

newzbinAfter a ruinous battle with Hollywood, Usenet indexing site Newzbin finally folded earlier this month.

Run by an ex-Newzbin editor, the DeepSharer blog quickly reported a rumor that someone had previously hacked the Newzbin servers and grabbed the source code and several databases.

“The Newzbin source code is in the wild,” confirmed Caesium, ex-owner of Newzbin. “Someone has it. I don’t know who, and I don’t know what they’re going to do with it, and I don’t really much care…[...]…whoever obtained it didn’t get it through me – how did they get it? I don’t know.”

Sure enough, in the last couple of days someone called Mr White from Team R Dogs/Newzbin2 has contacted ex-members of Newzbin with an interesting message.

“Good news: we are Newzbin Two, and we have glad tidings: NEWZBIN IS BACK! and we are the new management. The crew got most of the original Newzbin source code and the main databases. We loved it too much to let it die,” says Mr White.

“We are nearly there but it is very complicated. We reckon we’ll up very soon,” he adds.

There can be little doubt, this group have the customer database at the very least since they contacted ex-members of Newzbin using the addresses subscribers used to sign up on the site. Time will tell what other data they have acquired but if the full NZB database is one of them, things could get very interesting indeed.

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  • xxx

    good news!

  • grrr

    noooooooooooooo usenet must die !!!!
    btw first

  • grrr

    damn scratch that not first

  • Anonymous

    Create more hydras!! This year i guess will be a final battle between P2P community and Maafia. Mafiaa are strucking big time and we r determined to bounce back more strongly this time

  • goat person

    dumb maffia you failed again. also stop chasing the pirate bay its getting ridiculous…

  • Anonymous

    Did they really get hacked or are they just saying they got hacked?

  • Peter_Pan

    “…but if the full NZB database is one of them…”

    Huh? What NZB database?

  • argh

    dont u have to pay for this, does that mean they have payment details of all the user too? i wouldnt want some hacker having access to my bank details!

    apparently im posting too fast as well – sort it out torrentfreak!

  • Anonymous

    “I spent millions of dollars on frivolous lawsuits, bribes and hookers to shut down Newzbin and all I got was this stupid T-Shirt”.

    Who wants to make a few of those and send them to the heads of the MAFIAA?

  • Gargamel

    8 May 23, 2010 at 21:29 by argh

    dont u have to pay for this, does that mean they have payment details of all the user too? i wouldnt want some hacker having access to my bank details!
    -
    DING! DING! DING! WE HAVE A WINNER! GIVE THE MAN A CIGAR JOHNNY!

  • Pingback: Hackers Set To Bring Newzbin Back Online | The Opinion

  • Psyonide

    “dont u have to pay for this, does that mean they have payment details of all the user too? i wouldnt want some hacker having access to my bank details!”

    Newzbin never stored any payment details. In fact, one of the things that pissed off the judge in their trial was the fact that Newzbin kept no real records of anything. All the hackers have is the ex-users’ e-mail addresses.

  • Hom3r

    @2 and why is that?

  • John

    I didn’t get no e-mail :/

    Must have been the customer database from a while back…

    Which makes me think that this probably is ligit. Newzbin would use the most-up-to-date members list if they had it. A lot of customers wouldn’t have got the e-mail otherwise…

    I also wonder if it’s going to be free or not.
    If it’s not free, Newzbin – even if they have stopped operating – could still sue the new ‘management’ for, get this, copyright infringement.

    If it’s *not* free, I imagine it will suck. Newzbin used to operate on £40k’s worth of hardware to process the database quickly. Without the hardware (and someone paying for the hardware), it will be slower than the American exchange student in a British private school. (ouch.)

    To be honest, they should have just sold the whole company/setup to someone oversees and be done with it.

  • Anonymous

    “dont u have to pay for this. . .”

    No you “”dont”"

    And learn how to spell.

  • Shooter

    Could be mafiaa ploy to catch people who run sites like this , sounds very dodgy

  • Anonymous

    Each week I check the pirate Bay to see if it is still there:

    http://thepiratebay.org/

    Yep! It is!

    Is it not enraging Gargamel?

    All this money spend for nothing!

    Hehehehehehehehehehehehe!

  • neostyles

    Oh christ. Here we go again. How long will it take for this to be shut down? When are they going to start handing out jail time already? It’s about time this crap ended.

  • Anon

    @13 Well, they sent the admins of the site an email from the addresses of previous customers, not TO the addresses of previous customers, so you shouldn’t have any emails to begin with?

  • Anonymous
  • Anonymous

    This sounds ridiculous. Torrent Freak come on now… this sounds like sensationalist drivel. Mr. White?! Are we in a reservoir dogs movie?

  • HNicolai

    @15: They send me a email, and im just a “customer”.

    But anyway, they send the mail from a dedi-box in sweden, so they might host the “new” NewzBin on the same server? (I will be watching the server :P)

  • Gandhi

    He made a million a year and doesn’t care that someone hacks him and runs off with his code? Yeah right!

  • Huh?

    Peter_Pan

    This might come as a surprise to you but Newzbin was an NZB site and therefore had a database of NZB files

    Weird I know :/

  • Peter_Pan

    @ Huh?

    Newzbin generated the NZBs on the fly.

    Newzbin did not have a NZB for every report, stored in some database.

    Surprised?

  • grr

    @2 and why is that?

    Simple, I’m an annoying person in life and on the internet. Just want to be awkward and backward and arrogant and did I mention annoying. Seventeenth!

  • grr

    damn scratch that not seventeenth

  • dixon

    don’t be stupid and trust unknown hackers that stole code, especially with your paypal info.

  • Reggit

    Im guessing “Mr White” means Mr Whitehat, even if he did have bank details, probably wouldnt use them, hacking a database is one thing, stealing money from accounts is another. Better just to put some code online, than rob loads of money and have every law enforcement agency in the world after you! =P

    Good news about newsbin btw! I dont actually use it, but i love the idea of giving the middle finger to the MPAA!
    Go hackers! =)

  • emtunc

    I doubt this was actually stolen… let’s be a bit realistic here; the databases and such were ‘handed’ over to these ‘hackers’ behind closed doors – smart move. Better than letting it die in the hands of the music industry.

  • Jorge

    newzleech.com is 1000x better AND is free. Didn’t even use that newzbin rubbish when it was still online. Definitely not going to use it when hackers are controlling the entire operation. Might not even be hackers, maybe a new mafiaa site to catch downloaders. I dont care because I use a better site.

  • Anonymous

    hackers are malicious

  • Flamge

    All rather too convenient. It has LIE written all over it. ;)

  • Capt Hook
  • tightasa

    @29 Not as bad as ex wives……..And like everyone else…….Only if you catch them on a bad day!

  • someone

    The “hacker” part scared me off. I mean, come on, I’m not going to run around on a site run by people who may or may not:

    1, steal my info
    2, install virus
    3, and other thing

  • Anonymous

    Mr. White…you mean Heisenberg rules Newsbin too!

  • tman

    Mr. White…you mean Heisenberg rules Newsbin too!

  • anonymous

    really people? a couple of you have been somewhat close but everyone is missing the obvious here ;)

  • everyone

    The word “hacker” scares you?
    Why would “hackers” install a virus or steal your info?

  • BIOS

    That is pretty fkin awesome that someone hacked it to keep it alive.

    HACK THE PLANET >.<

  • Ninja

    The hydra never dies.

    Take that MAFIAA.

  • Pingback: Hackers will Bring Newzbin Back Online « SYSTEMA

  • STOP IT!

    There was no “database” you retards! The “hackers” have the database of email info and they are FISHING for about $10 from each old member. DON’T BE FUCKING STUPID PEOPLE. SHAME ON YOU TORRENTFREAK FOR FEEDING INTO THIS SCAM@!@!@!@!@!@!@!@!!!!!

  • Jack

    @32 that is not what a hacker does.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_%28computing%29

    there is a bit of history for you.

    J.

  • someone

    I know what a hacker does, but what if these guys are ‘crackers’ with the intent of identity thief. I appreciated their efforts but I also advise caution.

  • d[iO]nysus

    @40

    What if you’re really working for the MPAA, and you’re only posting to monger Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt? I advise readers of your post to be cautious of you.

  • pirate

    ok folks, i see a lot of people complaining but the good news is that its coming back and mafiaa’s attempts are fail (as hoped) The site wil be able to be reviewed and all and since there is more than 1 place to post on the net, we will be able to find out if its trojan,etc place or not. If its infested, it will be reported as a scam and people can search to find about how it is and won’t use it. Don’t judge something be4 you even try it. give it time and then report folks. Two thumbs up 4 coming back

  • TalieseN

    @Peter_Pan

    sup pp, long time :p

    and yeah, u tell em how it is(well was now i guess)

    Newzbin was around long long before these “nzb” files ever existed. and Newzbin was the originators of the nzb files and their format. The only databases aside from users they have are of headers and other such usenet info, and subsequent “posts” that are created by the editors to make it easier to search by the common users. the .nzb is created on the spot by the server when a user selects their reports or individual files/headers. Newzbin kept a constant update using multiple usenet providers of all headers in listed newsgroups.

    so yeah, no database of “nzb”s are there to be had.

  • James

    “Good News Everyone” !

  • shell

    I don’t even know what Newzbin is but if it pisses of the MAFIAA they are cool in my book.

  • Huh?

    Semantics dear Peter

    a database of reports then, whatever, but you get the point the article is trying to make.. Will newzbin2 be empty or full of reports/nzb’s ?

  • Anonymous

    OWNED! the idiots should of released it anyways.

  • Mr. White

    Maybe I should change my surname now ;)

  • Whatever

    Soon the MAFIAA will claim the TPB is behind it and want their address details now so they can shut them down before getting the information.

  • GrX

    there is no NZB hydra like there is with bittorrent why because there is no NZB source code for a site like there is with tb-dev and all the other variations of the codebase.

    there can only be a hydra when there is source code freely available as without that free source code this is exactly what happens

    Newzbin didn’t release the source code like torrentbits originally did which was the only reason 100000 of websites sprung up.

    this is what happens when a site gets shut down and doesn’t release their code base to the open source community..

    dont worry about the maffiaa were doing their job for them pretty well

    selfish people keeping that codebase to themselves nothing short of shooting yourself in the foot

  • TerribleTony

    To all those people who are babbling on about the word “hackers” referring to unscrupulous criminals, think again. Hackers come in two forms, sometime three. There is the white-hat (nice-ish guy), black-hat (not-nice-ish guy), and who I refer to as grey-hat (not-sure-either-way guy).

    Admittedly, it is hard to trust the integrity of a few guys who somehow got a hold of source code and databases.

  • inviteforumfag

    @56 u r l337
    n1 coining gray hat

  • theDog

    Can I be Mr. Brown?? Go Reservoir Dogs, OOWWWWWWW

  • Bilbo

    @17 This “crap” will stop once you stop being a twat, which is not any time soon.

  • haze

    Sweet hackers will keep us safe! — Yes I Can’t wait for the new site make it so no one can touch it also!

  • ?

    I love how so many of the comments are there because the posters watched “Hackers Wanted” the other day. :D I do remeber the term grey-hat being used then.

    As for the site coming back, I never used it to begin with. I would like to see this though once it’s been given a bit of an evaluation.

    If they get the headers like the old site did then the code (if it is the real code) should generate the rest.

  • Anonymous

    @17 neostyles.

    “Oh christ. Here we go again.”

    Yep. Resistance is futile for corporate parasites. They will be eradicated.

    “How long will it take for this to be shut down?”

    Forever. It will never be shut down just like TBP.

    “When are they going to start handing out jail time already?”

    Yes. It is time to put in jail all these entertainment industry executives criminals.

    “It’s about time this crap ended.”

    Agree. let’s get ride of the current entertainment industry and rebuild without the current corporate parasites in charge.

  • the united hackers association

    YOU CANNOT CONTROL OR STOP FREEDOM AND KNOWLEDGE

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  • d[iO]nysus

    @63

    [LIKE BUTTON]

  • Pingback: ?????? ????????? ????????? Newzbin » ??????????? ????????? ? ??????

  • who cares

    where does this false sense of entitlement come from?

  • Brilliant Death

    That’s the great thing about the web, the state’s monopoly on physical force is of little use to them when it comes to stopping things on the net. Dotcommunis will win.

  • Digital zombie

    BRING ON THE NEWZBIN CLONES

  • Dylan

    I flatter you because I love you, Thank you TorrentFreak.com!

  • Kn0b

    @grx: “there is no NZB hydra like there is with bittorrent why because there is no NZB source code for a site like there is with tb-dev and all the other variations of the codebase.

    there can only be a hydra when there is source code freely available as without that free source code this is exactly what happens

    Newzbin didn’t release the source code like torrentbits originally did which was the only reason 100000 of websites sprung up.

    this is what happens when a site gets shut down and doesn’t release their code base to the open source community..

    dont worry about the maffiaa were doing their job for them pretty well

    selfish people keeping that
    codebase to themselves nothing short of shooting yourself in the foot”

    As usual you make another uninformed post about matters that you don’t know anything about – typical behaviour from you. Try to refrain from making stuff up in your head before making posts like your some authority ffs.

    If you’d bothered to do a mediocum of finding out why the site code wasn’t open sourced (hint: this website lol) you’d know that Newzbin was a privately owned limited company which is now in th hands of the recievers.

    The code no longer belongs to Newzbin, it belongs to the recievers – like all other NB assets in order that maximum value may be recouped from the companies assets.

    To sell, change license or distribute the code is a criminal offense in these circumstances the owners of Newzbin would face jail time and personal asset seizure (kind of defeats the point of opening a limited liability company capiche).

    Seriously grx, you’re king of the clueless on a site filled with clueless people. Stop making stuff up in your head then adding critiscm others about how bad the made up stuff is that only happened in your head.

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