The site created the NZB format, in basic terms .torrent files for newsgroups, which massively simplified the downloading of files from Usenet. This new-found ease of use attracted many to the previously difficult and inaccessible system and helped to kick-start a wave of Usenet indexing sites.

The subsequent popularity of Newzbin was not appreciated by the MPA, who sued the site’s operators. The action proved ruinous and in May 2010 left the site with debts of anywhere between £500K and £700K, depending on whose estimates you believe.

But through all the misery came a ray of light for the site’s former users. Newzbin was to be resurrected by a team of hackers called Team R Dogs, of which Mr White was the most public-facing.

Although the site did come back as Newzbin2, things were not going to be easy. The MPA, who were stinging that the site they had killed had somehow reanimated, began legal action to have the site blocked at the ISP level in the UK.

After much wrangling, October 26 2011 Justice Arnold at the High Court handed down a written judgment to BT, one of the UK’s largest Internet service providers. It ordered the company to block subscriber access to Newzbin2 within two weeks.

Newzbin2 responded with an encrypted software client to circumvent the ban which did go some way to getting users back on the site, but the MPA still weren’t done and continued pressing for more ISP blocks.

In the end, all of the UK’s major Internet providers were blocking the site and with the growing threat of domain seizure, Newzbin2 took the decision to switch to a Spanish .es domain.

For months now the site has continued, albeit in a more subdued fashion, but behind the scenes things have not been running to plan.

“Our servers have been unstable and crashing on a regular basis meaning the NZBs & NFOs are unavailable for long periods and we don’t have the money to replace them,” the site said in a closure statement a few hours ago.

In addition to its computing power, Newzbin2 and its predecessor have always relied on human beings to find interesting files on Usenet and bring them to the attention of the site’s users. But perhaps understandably, the adverse news surrounding the site has driven these people away. After all, who wants to become shooting practice for the MPA?

When TorrentFreak spoke with Mr White after Team R Dogs first took over the site, he made something very clear to us – his team were reviving Newzbin, not for the fun of it, but for the money. But now, more than two years later, it appears that particular plan won’t come to fruition.

“The figures just don’t stack up. Newzbin1 was said to have had 700,000 registered users. In fact that was the total number of people who ever signed up in the history of Newzbin from 2000 onwards & only a fraction were active, loads of people dropped out & went to other sites,” Team R Dogs reveal.

“We reckon they had about 100,000 users and of those only a few 10′s of thousands paid premium topups. That still made good money for the Newzbin1 guys. We don’t have much more than about 40,000 active users and the number of premium users is in the small thousands. It costs much more to run than we bring in, it just doesn’t stack up,” they add.

Team R Dogs also say that bringing back Newzbin after it was taken down didn’t sit well with the conspiracy theorists who spread the rumor that the site was an MPA trap.

“That stung us bad and we never got the userbase back,” they say.

And the money woes don’t stop there. We’ve reported recently how all kinds of file-sharing sites and services have been experiencing problems with PayPal and other forms of payment processing, and apparently Newzbin2 have had extreme difficulties too. All of their payment providers have withdrawn their services and the site now reveals that there was also a fresh legal attack.

“The MPA sued Paypal and are going at our innocent payment provider Kthxbai Ltd in the UK. Our other payment provider has understandably lost their nerve. Result? We have no more payment providers to offer & no realistic means of taking money – no, Bitcoin isn’t credible as it’s just too hard for 90% of people,” Team R Dogs conclude.

In its farewell speech the site protests that it was always 100% DMCA compliant and has taken down content when asked to, but none of that would have been good enough for the MPA. They have spent a huge amount of money on both the current site and its predecessor and it was never likely they were simply going to forget about it.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The Motion Picture Association were seeking a High Court injunction ordering BT to block subscriber access to Newzbin2, a site they say causes the industry significant losses by helping people to locate movies and TV shows on the Usenet binaries system. The MPA won.

“In my judgment it follows that BT has actual knowledge of other persons using its service to infringe copyright: it knows that the users and operators of Newzbin2 infringe copyright on a large scale, and in particular infringe the copyrights of the Studios in large numbers of their films and television programmes,” said Justice Arnold in the High Court last July.

In October 2011 the parties returned to court and BT was given just 14 days to use its Cleanfeed censorship system to block subscriber access to Newzbin2.

However, unlike this year’s blockade of The Pirate Bay, only BT were affected by the High Court order. The MPA had asked other ISPs to voluntarily block Newzbin2 following the ruling but they refused. In December 2011, ISP SKY confirmed that they had received an order to block Newzbin2 and in early January 2012 an order was issued for TalkTalk to block access.

All this time Virgin Media, a company that has a monopoly on cable Internet access in the UK, had continued to provide access to Newzbin2. That will soon change.

“We’ve received an order from the courts requiring us to prevent access to Newzbin in order to help protect against copyright infringement,” the company announced yesterday.

“As a responsible ISP, Virgin Media complies with court orders addressed to us, but we strongly believe that changing consumer behaviour to tackle copyright infringement also needs compelling legal alternatives to give consumers access to great content at the right price.”

At the time of writing, Newzbin2 remains accessible through Virgin Media and the ISP has not indicated how long it has been given to comply with the court order. Spokesman for Newzbin2 Mr.White said that he believes the block will kick in today.

When The Pirate Bay was blocked earlier this year, dozens of proxy sites popped up that gave UK Internet subscribers plenty of options to continue getting access to the torrent resource. Newzbin2, probably due to its lower profile, did not receive the same level of support, although the operators did release their own encryption software to allow users to circumvent bans. It received its latest update last week.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The decision came after BT failed in their opposition to the blockade of Newzbin2 which had been ordered after several Hollywood studios applied for an injunction against the site on copyright infringement grounds.

With several days to go before the deadline expires, according to Mr White at Newzbin2, BT appear to have implemented the blockade.

“We’ve heard that the British Telecom censorship of the free web has begun,” he told TorrentFreak in an email.

“It’s a sad day when a minor European nation decides to kow-tow to Hollywood and join China and Iran in blocking citizens from reading the views of others and accessing a search engine.”

In typically defiant mood, Mr White added that the blockade would have very little impact.

“Downloads of our BT Cleanfeed busting client that will allow anyone to access our site despite the block have been stratospheric over the past couple of weeks,” he reports.

The apparent take up of the software has been impressive. Just over 93% of Newzbin2′s active BT users are reported to have downloaded the anti-censorship software, leading to what Mr White describes as “replete failure” for the MPA.

Reports from BT users during the past few hours have varied.

Some say they can still access the site, others report that they cannot and can see the “Error – site blocked” message detailed above instead. Others report that Newzbin2 can only be accessed via their anti-censorship client or by typing the site’s IP address (85.112.165.75) directly into their browser.

It’s unclear why there is a variation in results but it would be reasonable to presume that the full effects of the block might need to propagate across the ISP’s userbase.

“Newzbin2 shall go on, it’s users shall continue to access the site and its facilities and as the UK lackeys of the MPA roll over other NZB sites like nzbsrus and nzbmatrix they will realise that nothing has changed and they have no change after paying millions of dollars in legal fees,” notes Mr White.

“Well done dinosaurs, have a fern leaf; TeamRDogs will have Pina Coladas.”

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

No other site has ever been blocked in the UK on copyright grounds before, and based on the reasoning behind the decision, Newzbin2 won’t be the last either.

The MPA is now working away in the background to come to agreements with other UK ISPs so that they too will block Newzbin2, but the ruling is a powerful tool – do other sites really want to get beaten over the head with it?

One site that didn’t, but now has been, is UK-based NZBsRus. According to the site’s owner, on Friday his site received a cease and desist notice from FACT, the Federation Against Copyright Theft.

While FACT, the MPAA’s UK proxy, are veterans of cases against sites such as TV-Links and FileSoup, in recent times they have usually got the police in to provide the muscle. According to unconfirmed information from an anonymous source, this time pressure was applied to NZBsRus’ host, but when they failed to take the site down quickly enough FACT targeted the owner of the site instead.

NZBsRus, which provided similar services to Newzbin2, was a much-loved site and naturally its users have been asking why it can’t simply be transferred to a more friendly host to avoid FACT. The site operators, however, aren’t giving off signals which suggest that’s going to happen any time soon. And that’s hardly surprising.

It took TorrentFreak a ridiculously short amount of time to personally identify and locate the owner of NZBsRus. Unfortunately for the owner, this means that FACT knows exactly who he is too. And when the big boys know where you live, things can get messy if you don’t play ball. They knew where the original Newzbin guys lived, and no one can deny that ended pretty badly.

Despite the protestations of NZBsRus that they are “just a search engine” and that they “don’t break the law”, given their lack of anonymity and the High Court’s stance against Newzbin2, their position seems hopeless. Besides, even if NZBsRus were on solid ground and up for a fight, the battle of who can afford to fight the case in court is already lost.

One reassurance that has come from the site is that private user information “is safe” and logs of user downloads haven’t been kept. NZBsRus might come back in some shape or form, but at this stage it seems highly unlikely that any return will be business as usual.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

At the last-minute a Newzbin2 and BT user stepped up to intervene in the proceedings but his appeals have fallen on stony ground.

Today, Justice Arnold handed down a written judgment to BT which orders the ISP to completely block subscriber access to Newzbin2 within 14 days.

As previously noted, BT will use its ‘Cleanfeed’ system to censor Newzbin2, a technology normally used to block images and sites connected to child abuse. However, the court took note that Newzbin2 have already released a tool designed to circumvent the system and judged accordingly.

“Since the main judgment was delivered, the operators of Newzbin2 have made available client software which is designed to allow a user to access the Newzbin2 website independently from, for example, an installed web browser, and thereby circumvent any block imposed by BT pursuant to the order,” wrote Justice Arnold.

“For this and other reasons, it is common ground that the order should permit the Studios to notify additional IP addresses and/or URLs to BT in future in order for those to be subject to the same blocking measures as www.newzbin.com.”

According to the Judge, the MPA and BT were in conflict over the extent of this flexibility.

The MPA preferred the block to encompass “any other IP address or URL whose sole or predominant purpose is to enable or facilitate access to the Newzbin [2] website,” but BT wanted “and any other website whose sole purpose is to provide access to the Newzbin [2] website.”

The Judge agreed with the MPA and noted that the studios should not have to “return to court for an order in respect of every single IP address or URL that the operators of Newzbin2 may use.”

Interestingly, BT asked permission to have the blocking order set aside “in the event that the [Studios] fail, within a reasonable time after the date of this order, to apply for and obtain an equivalent injunction against other UK ISPs.”

The Court denied the request but noted that the MPA are already trying to persuade other ISPs to submit to injunctions voluntarily.

BT was told that it will pick up the costs of the blocking case from 16th December 2010 to 28th July 2011. Any costs incurred after this date will be paid by each party.

BT will also have to foot the bill of implementing the blocks which are estimated at an initial £5,000 plus £100 for each amendment.

The Blocking Order

1. In respect of its customers to whose internet service the system known as Cleanfeed is applied whether optionally or otherwise, the Respondent shall within 14 days adopt the following technical means to block or attempt to block access by its customers to the website known as Newzbin2 currently accessible at www. newzbin .com, its domains and sub-domains and including payments. newzbin .com and any other IP address or URL whose sole or predominant purpose is to enable or facilitate access to the Newzbin2 website. The technical means to be adopted are:

(i) IP address re-routing in respect of each and every IP address from which the said website operates and which is notified in writing to the Respondent by the Applicants or their agents; and

(ii) DPI-based URL blocking utilising at least summary analysis in respect of each and every URL available at the said website and its domains and sub-domains and which is notified in writing to the Respondent by the Applicants or their agents.

2. For the avoidance of doubt paragraph 1 is complied with if the Respondent uses the system known as Cleanfeed and does not require the Respondent to adopt DPI-based URL blocking utilising detailed analysis.

3. The Respondent shall not be in breach of paragraph 1 if it temporarily suspends Cleanfeed or the addition of IP addresses or URLs thereto with the consent in writing of the Applicants or their agents.

4. The parties have permission to apply on notice in the event of any material change of circumstances including, for the avoidance of doubt but without limiting the generality of the foregoing, in respect of the costs, consequences for the parties and effectiveness of the aforesaid technical means from time to time.

5. The Applicants shall pay the Respondent’s costs of this application down to 16 December 2010. The Respondent shall pay the Applicants’ costs of this application from 17 December 2010 to 28 July 2011 inclusive. Such costs shall be assessed on the standard basis if not agreed and set off against each other. Each party shall bear its own costs since 28 July 2011.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Although BT had already lost their case opposing the action, there was a last-minute development when a Newzbin2 and BT user stepped up to intervene in the proceedings.

The individual, known only as “DM”, had already come under pressure from the MPA who, according to Newzbin2′s Mr White, had sent him a bill for “$10,000 in costs” along with a warning that the proceedings could bankrupt him.

Despite these efforts, DM’s application was heard yesterday. TorrentFreak understands that he asked that the full block on Newzbin2 should be avoided, and the MPA should specifically identify which URLs point to infringing material and have those removed instead.

“Congratulations to our user ‘DM’ for having the big clanging balls of steel to intervene on behalf of the users of Newzbin2. He did so in the teeth of desperate ferocious opposition by the MPA and wasn’t fazed by their spineless attempts at personal intimidation,” said Newzbin2′s Mr White in an email to TorrentFreak.

“The MPA were happy to line up their own lackey Copyright Dinosaurs organizations to support their the claim: the BPI, IFPI, Publishers Association and the Association for UK Interactive Entertainment lined up sycophantically and obediently behind the MPA. The MPA hypocrites didn’t feel that it was appropriate for anyone opposing their wishes to be heard.”

Nevertheless, the judge felt that DM’s submission should be aired and he allowed that to go ahead. Whether it has made any difference is yet to be seen.

“The court case concluded but the judge has ‘reserved judgment’ which I’m told means he will deliver his blocking order in an unknown form in a few weeks or so,” says Mr White. “Obviously we are nervous on behalf of our UK users and hope for the best.”

But for ‘DM’ the news on his predicted bankruptcy appears to be good. Because he won his submission he won’t have to pay the costs of the MPA opposing him.

“Of course, £7,500 wouldn’t be enough to buy the MPA any politicians so they probably aren’t that upset. Shame,” Mr White concludes.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The case was brought against BT by Twentieth Century Fox and five other major Hollywood film studios who had demanded that Newzbin2 should be stopped from providing links to unauthorized content.

Justice Arnold stated that BT had “actual knowledge” that people using its service were infringing copyright, and that users and operators of Newzbin2 infringe the copyrights of the studios.

Today, BT and the MPA are back in court to work out the final stage of this precedent-setting web-blocking case, but there will be a surprise last-minute addition to the proceedings. Following an earlier appeal from Newzbin2, a BT user has stepped forward and is bravely preparing to take on the MPA.

Speaking with TorrentFreak, Mr White of TeamRDogs, the team behind Newzbin2, has confirmed that the individual has intervened in the case with an aim to prevent the site being blocked. His application will be heard today along with the blocking order.

“Already the MPA are trying to intimidate him by sending him a bill for $10,000 in costs,” Mr White told us. “They are trying to intimidate him by telling him he will be bankrupted if he loses!”

“We think that it’s typical of the MPA to say ‘noone from the site objected’ and then try to bury them in huge legal bills when they do,” he added. “We are providing him with moral support and we will be trying to encourage people to chip in for his legal costs if he loses, and we will help him out too.”

TorrentFreak has learned that the individual, who is both a user of Newzbin2 and BT, is attempting to intervene to prevent a full block of the site and make the MPA specifically identify which URLs should be blacklisted instead.

It is felt that both BT and the MPA have failed to correctly inform the court of the legal content to be found on Usenet and as such is under the impression none exists. Selective URL blacklisting will allow the legal content to continue as usual.

The ruling against Newzbin2 marks the first time that a site in the UK has been ordered to be blocked on copyright infringement grounds. More on this today when news from the hearing breaks.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Last month and before the court-ordered ISP level block of Usenet indexing site Newzbin2 even came into effect, the site launched a home-grown tool to defeat it. TeamRDogs – the group behind the site – released Newzbin Client 1.0.0.127, the first public piece of software designed to circumvent ISP BT’s Cleanfeed censorship system, the tool the MPA hopes can neutralize Newzbin2 in the UK.

Within days Newzbin2 told TorrentFreak that they would extend their support to other sites affected by DNS and IP address blocks. Today they announce their first partner.

“We have updated the Newzbin2 Client with a special link to The Pirate Bay, in response to the blockage in Belgium,” TeamRDogs’ programmer Mr Violet told TorrentFreak.

The ‘blockage in Belgium’ is a reference to the news yesterday that two ISPs, Belgacom and Telenet, were ordered by a court to implement DNS blocks against The Pirate Bay.

Tests by TorrentFreak confirm that the Newzbin2 tool will indeed circumvent a DNS blockade of The Pirate Bay. Those looking for other ways to unblock the site can find information here.

“We at Newzbin2 are HUGE fans of The Pirate Bay badboyz: we’d like them even if they beat up our mothers. The fact that they, like us, suffer pointlessly at the hands of the Copyright Dinosaurs disposes us to assist them in any way we can,” Newzbin2′s Mr White told TorrentFreak.

“They certainly don’t need us and this is as more of a solidarity gesture than a Mink lined lifeboat with minibar. We have no ties to TPB but us Swedes gotta stick together.”

Mr White says the team have also been keeping an eye on BREIN’s work over in the Netherlands.

“The block [in Belgium] is astonishing to us and we also wonder whether BREIN have been smoking too much dope in Dutch coffeeshops. What with the recent ‘ban’ on Usenet in the Netherlands we can only assume the European rights agencies occupy a building exposed to high levels of stupid rays,” he adds.

As website blocking becomes more aggressive it is likely that more tools such as the one offered by Newzbin2 will appear and become ever more sophisticated. Rather than having hard-coded parameters they will be updated automatically via plugins, online updates and user input as they become more savvy.

For file-sharers, unblocking sites will become just another part of the game, a game they’ve been playing virtually unhindered for more than a decade, despite millions of dollars being spent to stop them.

“TPB won’t be silenced: we won’t be silenced,” Mr White concludes. “We serve a valuable role in disseminating culture. And free stuff. We are here to stay, deal with it. ‘Barman! a jug of Pina Colada for the Pirate Bay guys.’

Article has been updated with comments from Mr White

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Last Wednesday, TeamRDogs – the group behind the site – released Newzbin Client 1.0.0.127, their first software release designed to circumvent BT’s Cleanfeed online censorship system. Our tests revealed that encryption is one of the main tools being used to circumvent the system.

Following the release, TorrentFreak caught up with Mr White from TeamRDogs, a character far more colorful than his monochromatic name might suggest. He told us that being forced to create this software was not only a waste of their time, but a sad testament to the state of the open Internet dream.

“Having to write a client program like this is an admission that the open web is in the process of failing. The ability of vested interests to choke the Internet with a vinculum woven from malevolent law and technology is very depressing,” Mr White told us.

“TeamRDogs would rather spend its time in titty bars drinking whisky and snorting lines than hacking the MAFIAA’s Client of Doom (hmmm, CoD – we may call it that), but they’ve made it necessary.”

The Newzbin2 anti-blocking software, which was updated with a new release just before the weekend followed by a brand new OSX version this week, is said to include ‘Agility Technology’. But what does that mean?

“This is simply a mechanism that will allow the application and its configuration to be modified to adapt to the new web censorship techniques that we can envisage arising,” Mr White explains. “The App can also ‘Phone Home’ for a friendly message if Newzbin2′s Intarwebs is cut off.”

While Newzbin2 could indeed become the first victim of the pro-copyright web-blocking movement in the West, if the lobbyists get their way it certainly won’t be the last. But by picking on a site like Newzbin2, which has already shown it is prepared to fight technology with technology (a route to failure in itself), the prospect of successful future web blocks has already been reduced.

Mr White told TorrentFreak that rather than keep their toys to themselves, in the spirit of sharing Newzbin2 could adjust their code to assist other victims of web-blocking.

“We could adapt it to help out other websites so if, for example, the MAFIAA start to go after NZBMatrix [another Usenet indexing site] or torrent sites we’d be happy to help them out.”

However, it’s not all plain sailing. We’ve already had pessimists point out that since TeamRDogs obtained the original Newzbin database by unconventional means, their software should be viewed with caution. But that notion is dismissed by Mr White.

“Some people will worry that [the client] will have adware/malware etc: given the heuristic examination that it will inevitably be subject to that would be dumb on a Sony scale,” says Mr White referencing the Sony CD rootkit fiasco. “It’s clean, we swear this on Ron Jeremy’s manhood.”

Mr White says that in addition to the new client, TeamRDogs also recommends tools offered by 3rd parties.

“Despite the App we reckon that MAFIAAFire will also be a good bet for most for now but we believe in having options,” he concludes. “And doubles all round.”

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Although the blocking measures aren’t expected to be put in place until after mid-October, a breakdown in one of Newzbin2′s DNS servers during the last few days led to fears that it had been implemented early.

The fault was quickly fixed, and Newzbin2′s operators said the problem encouraged them to work harder on their promised anti-blocking solutions.

Today, TeamRDogs – the group behind the site – released Newzbin Client 1.0.0.127, the first public piece of software designed to circumvent BT’s Cleanfeed online censorship system, the tool which the MPA hopes can neutralize Newzbin2 in the UK.

“We are pleased to announce the first Newzbin2 client software,” said Newzbin2′s Mr White.

“This is targeted at UK users who are likely to get blocked in October. This first version is a bit rushed and so not very polished. As time goes by we shall improve it and add features.”

The software provides a basic web interface for the Newzbin2 site but while OSX and Linux versions are planned for the future, the client (which downloads in a 2.4mb installer) is currently only available for Windows users. So how does it work?

“We can’t say how our client application works but it uses a number of techniques to utterly defeat Cleanfeed,” said Mr White in an email.

“The application also has Agility Technology to break any updated web censorship methods or anti freedom countermeasures.”

Using network protocol analysis software, TorrentFreak ran some basic tests on the Newzbin2 client today which revealed that it does indeed defeat known features of Cleanfeed in a number of ways.

Initially the client tries to resolve the site’s domain name to an IP in the usual manner via DNS, but from there, and without going into too many details, an encrypted session is initiated between the client and the Newzbin2 site in a way that Cleanfeed won’t like, rendering blocking impractical and snooping more or less impossible.

As can be seen from the screenshot above, the client also provides some other features such as accessing the Newzbin2 website via the TOR anonymity network. Other useful links to online resources such as IMDb and common search engines are also provided.

The client is in the early stages of development and will need a few features updating if it wants to be near bulletproof. We’re sure Newzbin2′s Mr Violet, the guy who put in much of the work, has all that covered – and more.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.