20th Century fox vs Newzbin

Soldato
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Usenet/Newzbin is no secret so without derailling the thread I think this is quite interesting read.

It shows that the prosecutors dont really know what they are doing/talking about and some what more intrestingly is that this is all based in London.

Reading through some comments I found this one some what amusing as it kind of shows the extent of their knowledge...

'I never understand they don't see newzbin is not supplying any of the files. Without a usenet server, you cannot do anything with newzbin, so it's not even a complete thing newzbin is supplying. It's like supplying blank dvd's, which can be used for 'evil'.

Really seems the industry are confused and how can they expect to win when they dont have a clue?

Heres an article on the first day of court.

http://www.usenetshack.com/newzbin-20th-century-fox-mpaa-usenet-indexing-high-court-day-one/
 
It is an interesting read, I agree, although I disagree that the claimants don't know what it is. I think they are going along the lines of NZBs being the access to evil, rather than the copywrite files being stored there.

The trial is good though, I think it'll either end up crippling newsgroups, or just making them known about more and make the claimants look stupid.
 
Interesting, and provoked a little debate here in the office.
Interestingly if Fox were to somehow put a rootkit/applet into the nzb file to attempt to harvest the downloader's details, as the downloader is committing a crime (copyright theft) then technically Fox would not need to apply for an authority for property interference under RIPA, not sure about Computer Misuse Act though.
 
Hmm - as a infrequent user of newzbin.com it worrys me they may be going the way of TPB and may get user lists and start harrasing people if they do indeed win.

Surely if they shut Newzbin.com down btw it will do nothing more than poke usenet in the eye by taking down one of their indexers.
 
Hmm - as a infrequent user of newzbin.com it worrys me they may be going the way of TPB and may get user lists and start harrasing people if they do indeed win. ...

I think I remember reading some time ago that Newzbin don't keep records of what NZB files you download, so the lists are going to be fairly useless unless there is proof of copyright infringement.
 
Here's an idea for the pirates: Buy films.

Here's an idea for the movie studios: Allow download of HQ movies for a decent price.
 
Reading through some comments I found this one some what amusing as it kind of shows the extent of their knowledge...

'I never understand they don't see newzbin is not supplying any of the files. Without a usenet server, you cannot do anything with newzbin, so it's not even a complete thing newzbin is supplying. It's like supplying blank dvd's, which can be used for 'evil'.

Really seems the industry are confused and how can they expect to win when they dont have a clue?
Where & who is this quote from and how does it show the extent of anyone's knowledge? I'm pretty sure they know how the system works.
 
Apparently XML files are evil because they could contain viruses? Where do they find these "expert witnesses"? :confused:
 
Only if you have your browser set up to auto-open the files, without it doing that it's perfectly safe and no viruses can get in. :p :D

That's the thing though. Auto-open or not. It's impossible for a virus (executable code) to be somehow embedded in an XML file. Unless maybe there was some bug in the XML parser library but that would be highly dependant on a very fine set of circumstances.

So yeah. Their expert witness is speaking BS. I should put my name forward :p
 
Yeah, I mean I get that you can't embed a virus, but you can embed malicious code into it mind. But then you can in anything so on that front...all websites are dangerous, BAN THE INTERNET! ;)
 
What exactly are the Newzbin site people being charged with, I can't find any exact details?

It's not entirely clear is it? So far the prosecution has just spouted a load of FUD about XML files.

It will be interesting to see what other bizarre stuff they come up with.
 
Reading through some comments I found this one some what amusing as it kind of shows the extent of their knowledge...

'I never understand they don't see newzbin is not supplying any of the files. Without a usenet server, you cannot do anything with newzbin, so it's not even a complete thing newzbin is supplying. It's like supplying blank dvd's, which can be used for 'evil'.

Really seems the industry are confused and how can they expect to win when they dont have a clue?

I don't understand what you're getting at here, are you saying the above comment is wrong?
 
Interesting to see this thing finally being resolved.
Good luck to the newzbin team, even if they get closed down, there are already lots of other sites out there doing the same thing, will turn into the same debacle we have with them chasing/closing torrent sites....
 
Isn't Usenet a service of the Internet like the world wide web or Email?

It is similar to attacking the guy who invented bit torrent instead of the Pirate bay.

Because usenet and torrents use a standard means they are somewhat protected because you cant ban it unlike napster or kazaa et al. It has far too many legal purposes.

Let the waste time with individual sites which can spring up faster than closed down.

They need to admit defeat, people still go to the cinema anyway, by making DVDs cheaper they wouldn't lose that much, especially when delivered digitally.


Films and games cost a lot to make and money should be paid for their service, I don't have as much sympathy for the music industry. :p
 
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As MikeHunt79 said I can see this going the same way as the OiNK case rather than the Pirate Bay. What hurt the Pirate Bay is that they had their own tracker which was being used to share the files. Newzbin just lets you collect articles together for ease of use.
 
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