Mere days after the closure of popular Usenet curator Newzbin, its source code has been stolen, opening the door for clones to spring up in its wake. Newzbin's admins have confirmed that the code has made its way into the wild, though they claim the leak wasn't an inside job. Either way, at least one Newzbin clone is already on its way, showing that Big Content will have to keep playing Whac-a-Mole if it wants to really stop file sharers from quaffing files from the Usenet tap.

Newzbin was pummeled by a UK court earlier this year for enabling copyright infringement, despite the site's claim that it merely acted as a "Google for Usenet." Newzbin hosted no content of its own, but it made plenty of money from this curating service by charging 30 pence a week for access. Newzbin's offering easy access to copyrighted works on Usenet led several movie studios to sue the company in London. Mr. Justice Kitchin handed down his verdict in March: Newzbin was liable for infringement. He issued an injunction against Newzbin, barring it from hosting films owned by the movie studios.

Almost two months later, the site simply shut down with a note that it had to close "as a result of the legal action against us." Newzbin pointed to a Revoltingfilesharers Blog post that claimed Newzbin had to close because it allegedly couldn't pay its debts; among those debts were £230,000 owed the movie studios and £500,000 to a development house. A newer blog post says the site admins confirmed Newzbin was being liquidated and that subscribers who wanted a refund could contact the liquidation company for a claim form.

More interestingly, however, were the details about an a server break-in that resulted in Newzbin's source code and database being stolen. Newzbin admin Caesium confirmed that the code was stolen, saying he had nothing to do with it. It was initially unclear what the thief's plans were for the code, but Newzbin spinoffs seem an obvious choice.

Indeed, that now appears to be the case, at least according to an e-mail sent to Newzbin account owners Friday:

Good news: we are Newzbin Two, and we have glad tidings: NEWZBIN IS BACK! and we are the new management. The crew got most of the original Newzbin source code and the main databases. We loved it too much to let it die.

Newzbin Two is not up yet—the new management is still working on finding a "cool domain" and want to "hack the code" a little more. They expect to be up and running sooner than later.

To say we're unsurprised by this development would be an understatement—in fact, it was flat out expected by most Newzbin observers and users alike. Nearly every time a major file sharing network gets taken down, another (or three, or five) spring up in its place—just look at the RIAA's list of the worst websites in the world. Many of those sites have been taken offline at one point or another, only to spring to life once again on a different server. This will surely be the case with Newzbin, whether users decide to move onto Newzbin Two or elsewhere.