Leechnet can't cope, won't cope

Porn Napster disabled

By Kieren McCarthy • Get more from this author

Posted in Music and Media, 4th December 2000 12:00 GMT

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Well, we're not sure whether it's The Reg's success, Leechnet's poor planning, or you punters' unending passion for dirty pics, but the porn Napster site we wrote about on Wednesday of last week has fallen over.

A message on its Web site says: "Due to recent media coverage and enormous growth, Leechnet has temporarily been disabled while we evaluate our current status. Leechnet thanks you for your interest in our service and we hope that you return in the near future for any updates."

And "due to the recent enormous growth and publicity of the Leechnet service, Nordic Research is no longer able to fund the required expansion and maintenance of the service". It is therefore looking for potential buyers.

We wonder whether the introduction of child porn by rogue posters had anything to do with the site's closure. We reported last week that the software produced by Leechnet allowed for easy posting of child porn and sure enough that's what happened. Leechnet did have checks, but these were not effective enough as its customer base rocketed after our story.

A Leechnet spokesman said a new system would be in place by now. Instead, the site shut down on Saturday. ®