RIP Newzbin2: notorious website says it has shut down for good

The notorious Newzbin2 website has finally closed down.

A message about the closure from the operators on the website says that a "combination of several factors has made this the only option. For a long time we have struggled with poor indexing of Usenet, poor numbers of reports caused by the majority of our editors dropping out & no-one replacing them.

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"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 operators of the website have been fighting a losing legal battle with the Motion Picture Association of America for over two years. The MPA accused it of promoting illegal file sharing by providing links to illegal downloads of hundreds of movies .

In 2010 the MPA successfully sued Newzbin in the UK High Court. However the members only company, which was based in the UK, put itself into administration moved its operation offshore, outside of British jurisdiction and resurrected itself as Newzbin2.

This didn't deter the MPA, which continued its legal action in the UK to try to force internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to the site. Although ISPs were reluctant to do this with BT facing the MPA in the High Court in June 2011, Justice Arnold ruled that the site must be blocked.

Nicholas Lansman, secretary general of the Internet Providers Association said at the time that the ruling brought "clarity on what is a complex area" but added that "concerns about over-blocking, ease of circumvention and increased encryption are widely-recognised, which means that blocking is not a silver bullet to stop online copyright infringement."

The court order was then used to force other major ISPs, including Virgin Media, Sky and TalkTalk to block access to the website. However the block wasn't that successful and customers could still find a way to access the website.

But the nail in Newzbin2's coffin was the withdrawal of the site's payment providers.

"To make things worse all our payment providers dropped out or started running scared. 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)".

Will Newzbin be back? "Not as a search service but we might run a blog from this site at some point," the message ends.