Who Is Next To Go

BREIN Plans to Move against NZB Sites

March 14, 2009

Thomas Mennecke

 

Ask just about anyone these days where the pulse of the file-sharing community is, and the most likely answer will probably be BitTorrent. Despite all the glory and power that BitTorrent has, however, it's tough to ignore one thorny issue that's beginning to grind into the entertainment industry: the newsgroups.

For those who only know BitTorrent, the newsgroups are a tough sell. There's no uploading, no peer swarm, and of course you have to pay. All these things superficially appear contrary to what BitTorrent and P2P stand for. But there's little denying that once the newsgroups have you hooked, all other methods of file-sharing seem a bit juvenile.

So it should come as little surprise that BREIN, the Dutch anti-piracy organization pressing legal action against MiniNova, is preparing action against Usenet sites.

"In 2009 BREIN goes on full strength ahead. Already 81 illegal sites were shut down in the first two months of this year. The Mininova case is set for hearing and BREIN will summon several sites exploiting Usenet. 'Sites who structurally link to illegal content have to take preventive measures or cease operations', says BREIN director Tim Kuik. 'The same goes for websites who host illegal content.'"

Some of the big players in the Netherlands include the indexing sites alt.binaries.nl and nzbindex.nl. None of these sites are specifically mentioned in BREIN’s statement, and it remains unknown what sites may be targeted. Our questions about which Usenet sites might face legal action were not answered at time of publication.

Indexing sites that host NZB files have come under increasing fire recently, with the MPA filing legal action against NewzBin.com late last year. However, ridding the internet of the Usenet menace is much more problematic than eliminating BitTorrent websites or trackers. There’s the news server at the heart of the newsgroup community, and with the ISP safe harbor provision protecting these entities, the newsgroups will be around long after their P2P contemporaries have vanished.