Many people felt that the methods ORBS employed to scan[citation needed] the Internet for open mail servers could be abusive.
It was shut down in 2001 due to Brown's health and money issues and two lawsuits brought by companies listed on ORBS, Xtra and Actrix, which he had refused to remove.
The court ruled that Brown made defamatory comments about Patrick O'Brien, CEO of Domainz, which is the .nz domain registrar.
Following O'Brien's victory and the awarding of $42,000 to him, Brown claimed that his net worth was only $500, which he said is why he did not have a lawyer[4] Several groups had cached the lists, retested the open relays, and replaced ORBS.
The Internet Society of New Zealand council seats (and subsequently the Domainz board) were filled by "rebel" members in elections in July 2000.