NZBMatrix, one of the leading Usenet indexing services, has shut down voluntarily. The website's owners explain that it has become increasingly difficult to operate in a business where copyright holders vigorously protect their content. A large takedown notice from Hollywood's movie studios as well as issues with payment providers are cited as reasons for NZBMatrix to throw the towel.

2012 has been a troublesome year for Usenet services.

Copyright holders have rapidly increased the number of DMCA takedown notices they send to indexing and hosting services. In addition, payment providers such as Paypal are banning Usenet related sites over piracy concerns.

As a result of these and other changes Newzbin2 killed their service at the end of last month, and today the very popular Usenet indexer NZBMatrix follows in its footsteps.

NZBMatrix shut down a few hours ago and left a statement on the site explaining why. The Usenet indexer says it had to make this decision due to a “very large takedown request” from major Hollywood movie studios”

While a takedown notice doesn’t have to mean the end of a website, NZBMatrix appears to have trouble automating the process. And with the increasing rate at which the notices come in, NZBMatrix can’t keep up anymore.

“As everyone is aware we are DMCA/Takedown notice compliant, and always have been. Once this notice is completed we are left with an impossible task of policing our indexing bots. Even then it won’t stop there, there will be follow-up notices etc,” they explain.

NZBMatrix adds that the more copyrighted material is removed, the less content is available to index properly, rendering a service such as NZBMatrix useless.

“The Usenet Indexing scene is going through some changes, with content being removed from pretty much every provider its making the existence of an indexer irrelevant if the content does not even exists anymore.”

The increase in takedown notices, coupled with issues at payment providers eventually resulted in NZBMatrix shutting down voluntarily. Sister site NZBxxx was shutdown as well and displays the same statement.

With millions of users a month NZBMatrix was one of the major Usenet indexing services. The site was particularly popular in Denmark, Australia and the UK.

While there are still many alternatives to NZBMatrix around, it’s become increasingly clear that copyright holders are determined to wipe Usenet clean bit by bit.

Below is the farewell notice that was posted on NZBMatrix this morning.

—

The End…

It is with our regret to announce that NZBMATRIX has closed.

We have had to make this decision due to a very large takedown request from a company called Wiggin LLC. These represent the following: Federation Against Copyright Theft Limited (“FACT”), Paramount Home Entertainment International Limited; Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Limited; The Walt Disney Company Limited; Twentieth Century Fox Film Company Limited; Universal Pictures (UK) Limited; Warner Bros. Entertainment UK Limited.

As everyone is aware we are DMCA/Takedown notice compliant, and always have been.Once this notice is completed we are left with an impossible task of policing our indexing bots. Even then it won’t stop there, there will be follow-up notices etc.

Coupled with this is problems with payment providers, we have been through pretty much everyone out there, in the end they all pull out. There are massive server/bandwidth costs to pay, with the payments in-stability this is a very hard task.

NZBMATRIX has never been the subject of any legal issues or threats.

Also the Usenet Indexing scene is going through some changes, with content being removed from pretty much every provider its making the existence of an indexer irrelevant if the content does not even exists anymore.

So it’s time for us to bow out…