Newzmonster, a promising news indexing site, closes

[news=http://www.slyck.com/newspics/newzmonster1ak.gif]It is with great sadness that we are announcing the permanent closure of Newzmonster. After recent events where our peer sites received letters of intent from the MPAA we do not wish to be next on the list, we realise that closing the site is not the most popular move but our staff have families that depend on them and being sued into bankruptcy is simply not an option.

By closing Newzmonster we are in now way admitting that the site is guilty of any wrongdoing, we simply host nzb files that are xml data in text files, we are no more guilty of copyright infringement than Google, Yahoo, MSN or any of the other myriad of automatic indexers that live in this wonderful home we call the internet.

We have also decided to take up an offer that was made to us several months ago for the rights to the Newzmonster source code including the "Grasscutter" indexing scripts. We have sold this to a party that has requested complete anonyminity but has plans to launch a multi-format indexing site sometime soon. This deal did not include any user data or databases, all of our user data has been thoroughly destroyed including all databases.

The newzmonster.com domain is available for purchase, we have 90,000 unique page views per day and 15,000 unique visits, please send all enquiries to [email protected] , no time wasters please.

We thank everyone for their support over the last year and wish you all the best on your endeavours. Its been a blast :).

Newzmonster Administration.

Source: http://www.newzmonster.com/[/news]

I would have to assume that the same thing is happening at www.binage.com as I have not been able to gain access for the last few days. I hope this is not a harbinger of things to come for indexing and nzb sites. It has been nice not having to update the a.b. groups on a regular basis.

Is it just a matter of time before the RIAA and MPAA go after the new hosting services?

So...

Are they just going to threaten everyone they suspect of wrongdoing?

Let's just shutdown the entire internet! Then no one will have to worry!

-Problem solved. Forget about the future.

Citing the news last month that the MPAA are now targeting NZB indexing sites along with Torrent indexers, the Snarf-It administration have decided to close up and sell off their NZB sister site, Newzmonster.

According the Newzmonster administration, the domain used to receive 90,000 unique page views and 15,000 unique visits per day.

Newzmonster is the latest site to either close or sell up in wake of the MPAA lawsuits. Sites directly targeted by the lawsuits and those fearing more lawsuits in the future have closed. TVNZB were the first NZB site to sell off, followed by DVDRs.net, who removed all NZB files from their website. Most recently Newzbin closed their NZB forums.

Meanwhile, eDonkey hashlink site ED2K-IT has closed down entirely and NiteShadow have removed all Torrent files from their servers. Both sites where named in the most recent lawsuits.

“It is with great sadness that we are announcing the permanent closure of Newzmonster,” the Newzmonster.com site now reads. “After recent events where our peer sites received letters of intent from the MPAA we do not wish to be next on the list, we realise that closing the site is not the most popular move but our staff have families that depend on them and being sued into bankruptcy is simply not an option.”

The announcement continues: “By closing Newzmonster we are in now way admitting that the site is guilty of any wrongdoing, we simply host NZB files that are xml data in text files, we are no more guilty of copyright infringement than Google, Yahoo, MSN or any of the other myriad of automatic indexers that live in this wonderful home we call the internet.”

The Newzmonster domain and all the source code for indexing newsgroup content and scripts for automatically producing corresponding NZB files have been sold off to a mystery third party.

Slyck News caught up with site administrator “Target”, but he refused to comment further. Slyck questioned why Snarf-It had been spared when lawsuits have also been also been filed against Torrent indexing sites, but again Target refused comment.

:source: Source: http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=1129