On TorrentFreak we’ve also had issues with BREIN after they labeled us a ‘pirate weblog’ and then used material from our site without proper attribution. Our legal counsel had to jump in, in an attempt to stop their libelous writing and harassment of smaller website operators.

As expected, this didn’t have much effect, and BREIN continued their operations claiming a few dozen victories by shutting down smaller torrent communities. They usually operate by sending emails to the site’s admins or hosting providers claiming that their activities are illegal, ordering them to shut down or face legal action.

Besides torrent sites, BREIN is also targeting Usenet indexers, claiming that they assist in copyright infringement. The NZB files found on many of these sites can be considered as Usenet’s answer to .torrent files as they point to content hosted elsewhere. They also make the otherwise-complicated Usenet downloading process relatively easy to master. BREIN does not like the fact that NZBs bring Usenet to the mainstream and considers sites hosting those files to have the same function as torrent sites and is targeting them in much the same way.

One of the NZB sites threatened by BREIN is BNI-online. The site received an ultimatum, with BREIN ordering them to stop their ‘illegal’ activities within 48 hours or be taken to court. The site has responded to this request and ceased its operations.

Splendid, the site’s founder explains that BREIN’s threats are one of the reasons for closing down the site. At this point we can not confirm that any other sites have closed after similar threats, but it wouldn’t be a surprise. Every torrent or NZB site hosted in The Netherlands will be approached by the anti-piracy outfit sooner or later.

This week, BREIN will be in court with another Dutch based site, Mininova, and TorrentFreak will of course keep you updated on the outcome and progress in this trial.

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

The increased popularity of services such as Newzbin didn’t go unnoticed with the MPAA. On 22nd May 2008, administrator ‘Caesium’ made an announcement:

Newzbin has today received a letter from the Motion Picture Association (MPA). In the letter, they claim that some editors may be reporting material from Usenet that is infringing the copyright of their members.

While these claims have not been substantiated, it should be noted that Newzbin does not condone the distribution or indexing of such materials. We will immediately act to remove any items that are found to be infringing copyright.

Please take a moment to refer to our Terms and Conditions, in particular sections 4 and 4.2.

Please note that we may revoke privileges, or ban accounts, of users found to be violating these Terms and Conditions.

Since this announcement, worried Newzbin users have contacted TorrentFreak to see if we could find out exactly what had been going on. Understandably, Newzbin didn’t want to tell us much.

However, if one looks closely at the announcement, it doesn’t tell us anything that we didn’t already know. The terms and conditions have been in place since 2007, there doesn’t appear to be anything new in those.

Of course Newzbin doesn’t condone the indexing of copyright works. How can it? It is a proper company that charges users for access, not an underground operation hiding in the shadows. It appears to comply fully with the laws in the UK, where the service is based. Newzbin also say they will remove anything that infringes copyright. NZB files do not, so at that point they probably believed they would have little work to do.

But the MPAA isn’t known for letting the law stand in the way of a good threat, threats which have closed several US-based NZB sites in the past such as NZB-Zone and forced others to adjust the way they operate. Newzbin has not been sued, we can confirm that, but it will have to change the way it operates too, if it is to comply with the movie industry demands.

Caesium is hinting at possible changes to the site in the future. It’s a possibility that all .NZB related reports will have to be removed. An alternative to appease the MPAA would be to remove only the posts related to movies and TV shows, an arrangement favored by BinNews.com when faced with the same legal threats.

At this point it is far from clear what measures Newzbin will be finally forced to take to stop the threat of legal action turning into an actual lawsuit. Newzbin appear to be being as upfront as they can at this point and are suggesting that if users only use the site for .NZB files, then they should consider not renewing their subscription. For those who aren’t scared of making their own .NZBs ‘BinSearch’-style, the site will still be of great use, even if the most draconian measures are taken.

BinSearch provides Usenet indexing with a do-it-yourself .NZB creator. Anyone who knows the full scene release name of the material they seek will adjust to it in a few minutes, but it’s no Newzbin. For the uninformed, the learning curve is steep.

Newzbin has a secret weapon which has made it so attractive. ‘Editors‘ are essentially human beings who make reports which link to specific content on Usenet. Newzbin can then generate a .NZB file, based on the report. Anyone with an NZB capable news reader, like Grabit, can use them. It seems that it’s this human intervention with the creation of reports which poses the legal headache.

Newzbin is considering that it may have to fully automate its operations in order to be totally sure of staying the friendly side of the law – no more human intervention, no more ‘editor’ named reports. No more easily browsable pre-determined categories. A simple Usenet search engine would likely attract little attention and would be entirely legal, as confirmed by Caesium: “…we’re pretty sure nobody is going to tell us that having an automated searchable index of the entire contents of Usenet is going to cause any problems.”

But why would anyone bother using a degraded Newzbin over, say, the very useful (but limited) ‘BinSearch’? After all, there would be presumably little to separate them, feature-wise.

The plan is to introduce a feature where Newzbin users can tag. This way the site can provide an entirely legal automated index – no Newzbin staff involved – with only the users adding the tags. It sounds like a great solution and may even prove just as workable longer term.

They say every cloud has a silver lining and for Newzbin, that might come in the form of a greatly increased userbase. Newzbin is currently a subscription service but the changes may well turn it into a free site, which effectively opens it up to everyone rather than just its current paying userbase. That’s a hell of a lot of tags. Thankfully there will likely be a ratings system, to ensure quality tagging.

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

Their theory is that if you take out part of the source, the torrent sites won’t have any content for others to download.

According to a source, the site ijsklontje.nl was a very important source of latest release porn NZBs: “It’s the biggest Usenet pr0n (porn) posting community. It’s been going for years, everyone into Usenet knows about it.” Indeed, a quick search on Binsearch.info for ‘ijsklontje’ reveals a huge amount of porn.

Yesterday, visitors to the ijsklontje.nl forum were greeted with a sad message with suspicious timing:

Hello fellow members of IJsklontje

After 3 years the staff had to decide to stop all activities on this forum.

The busy life of admins and moderators is the main reason.

This forum has been brought to the top by lots and lots of hours by many staffmembers, posters and spotters. It doesn’t deserve to melt bit by bit …… So we stop at our highest level and get on with our real lifes.

We made an example for many other usenet forums, the groups are now filled by many posts from other places than IJs, so there will be no shortage of erotic binaries.

We would like to say thanks to all who made IJsklontje to the world’s most famous erotic usenetforum….

Sorry for this sad thread, we are mentally broken as well… we love you all and may you all live to see the dawn.

We salute all our friends… maybe we will see each other at other places.

Staff IJsklontje

At this stage, it has been impossible for us to verify if this shutdown is in fact the result of some legal pressures from the porn industry but judging the amount of gloating on the GoFuckYourself forums, it’s difficult to see it any other way:

ServerGenius breaks the news:

Hello everybody….as I have posted before Usenet Piracy Forum IJSKLONTJE
the site is now shutdown. This will be a HUGE blow to a lot of other piracy sites on the net as many torrent sites used this place as their main source for content.

He goes on to acknowledge the non-profit nature of the community:

I do know that these guys and their site didn’t generate them a lot of revenue
unlike a lot of other sites……as big and popular as they were they didn’t advertise or took advantage of their traffic in any way that would have made them a lot of money…….which probably made their decision to close shop a lot easier for them take….

and then makes some comments about the BitTorrent sites he believes he’s starved of content by closing ijsklontje:

….however a lot of others sites that feeded from their content do/did make money indirectly of them…..so them closing still hurt quite a few others than them in their income revenue…….and writing this down….makes me feel a little warm and happy inside

ServerGenius says he has a hit list – the sites ‘youporn’ and ‘megarotic’ are on it apparently.

As one of the forum posts quite rightly points out, closure of this site will not stop the digital flow of erotic pirate binaries. Even if this action does turn out to be the first victory for the porn industry, it will prove very quickly to be a short-lived one as the file-sharing hydra strikes again.

Stay Tuned

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