mpaa goes after newzbin

[Yaka]

dunno if any of you guys use newzbin but this is ont he front page

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.

 

[Chilly]

had to happen. newsgroups will be taking a hit soon surely?

 

[nath]

Eep, was worried about this. Had always hoped that newzbin, and indeed newsgroups in general were too specialist to receive any attention of this nature.

 

[Bob007]

They did something similar to binnews about this time last year (maybe year before) and they complied and closed searching for none members. I suspect newsbin will do the same. Sadly i think Usenet will kill its self, since the introduction of .nzb and .par2(can't remember last time i requested a fill) files its easier to grab stuff from newsgroups and in many cases faster, then it is to grab stuff by "other" means.

If we could just get all the www based usenet nzb search engines to close we can go back to being the untalked about few. if only...

 

[nath]

And go back to downloading headers of the groups? No thanks :\

 

[Yaka]

wonder why they didnt hit sites like binsearch first?

 

[Bob007]

its prob only a matter of time before Binsearch gets a poke. with nzbzone and dvdr gone the way of the dodo, BN closing doors and the long running "it is a search engine or a torrent/nzb site" battle with ISOhunt. All eyes will be on this new 1 with Newzbin.

What i find strangest of all is the they are targeting "search" sites as opposed to the actual "copyrighted" content hosted on a.b.(insert fav groups here) servers. Begs the question are the files actualy breaking any laws. I mean usenet isn't just a.b.freeroxorwarezandmovies, it also has a large text based comunity with every subject matter you could think of. Also makes me wonder about the files them selves. After all at the server they are just text documents (yenc), so do these have copyright properties. Afterall till they are decoded/assembled at the leechers end they are nothing but garbled letters and numbers.

Is it a search engine or is it a warez site. Time will tell. But looking at the way they going about it. Usenet its self seems pretty safe for the time being.

 

[Chilly]

Bob, encoding doesnt matter. The content is 100% infringing no argument. They go after the search sites because they are easier (ie the operaters have little money). If they were to go after an actual news service theyd be going up against a proper company with lawyers and shit.

 

[Draylor]

Usenet its self seems pretty safe for the time being.

That was true 2 years ago, clearly its not thesedays.

Its fairly obvious to those paying attention that the larger providers are feeling the heat thesedays. We'll see what the next few months/years brings ...

 

[ZaPpeh]

Update:


Newzbin has recently received two serious complaints regarding the indexing we perform, and raising doubts as to its legality.

It is likely that we will in the coming weeks be presented with a court case and have to defend our rights. We will be defending ourselves vigorously against both the complainants if necessary and we believe a court will agree with our view that linking to content on Usenet is indeed legal and our method of dealing with unlawful content is appropriate. We believe that, or we wouldn't still be here.

We are not in a position to disclose the identities of these two complainants (though I'm sure you can guess one of them) but we will report more as we can.

These cases are against us, not you. Having an account on Newzbin is not going to be a problem for you.

So, basically, if you start seeing press releases that legal action is commencing against us, don't be alarmed - we know, and indeed it's a good thing that we're getting these issues laid to rest.

 

[wittzi]

Usenet Content is NOT Illegal if you stick to the rules ...

One of the potential reasons that this has come about is idiot noob posters. If you decided to infringe copyright and for whatever reason rip a DVD to DivX file and post it, you should ordinarily do the following (or similar):

<fascist mod edit>

Increasingly I'm finding that posters are uploading the full 800Mb movie.avi file in its entirety, which is where the problem lies. This file IS illegal and DOES constitute infringement.

In the early days, it was not uncommon to have 100's of 1.44Mb files because they could be transferred on floppies, but I rarely see files below 14.9Mb now.

One thing that I think is easy to predict, is that if they do start attacking Usenet users, they're actually dealing with people that know what they're doing (technically) are many (or collectively the 'scene') will be in a position where they can fight back i.e. bringing down the sites of those that file against them, etc ...

Either way, I hope that Usenet stops getting so much attention. No one wants any of this to happen!

 

[TdC]

I think explaining how to circumvent illegality, and making general threats is toeing the line of the FH code of conduct. Kindly desist.

 

[Jupitus]

I think explaining how to circumvent illegality, and making general threats is NOT toeing the line of the FH code of conduct. Kindly desist.

Probably a mad dutchie attempt at using English expressions... anyway, tis fixxored

 

[TdC]

oh sorry I'm actually listening to Christopher Hitchens and his bro, and I now feel bad that I have made misuse of the language :/