AfterDawn: News

Mininova is dead, must filter torrents

A Dutch judge has today killed the large torrent tracker Mininova, telling the site to either delete all copyrighted content from the tracker, or pay a €5 million penalty.

The site had been charged with "contributory copyright infringement," by the Dutch anti-piracy agency BREIN, as the site did no direct copyright infringement.



Mininova notably removed links if copyright holders flagged them, but as with all trackers, when one went down, five would take its place, making the whole situation redundant.

The new court decision says Mininova was profiting from "inciting copyright infringement" and made over €1 million in 2007 on ad sales. Estimates have said about 90 percent of Mininova content is infringing.

The site must now "adopt proactive filtering" of copyrighted content or face a large fine.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 27 Aug 2009 2:06

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• 27 comments

• Blackjax

  O or 8 <-----What do these have in common with the copyright infringement game being played by the mafiaa, uploaders and downloaders? Lets see who gets it right first!

  27.8.2009 02:18 #1

• nonoitall

  The entertainment industry sure seems to be obsessed with filters. They just don't seem to get that there's no such thing as an automated filter that can reliably isolate copyrighted content.

  27.8.2009 04:09 #2

• AlmostOz

  Up/downloaders will just move to a new system.
  
  Napster->Kazaa
  
  Kazaa->Limewire
  
  Limewire->Torrents
  
  Torrents-> Filehosts
  
  Filehosts ->Bluetoothing on your mobile phone at work?
  
  The mafiaa is always one step behind
  
  If they spent the money that they were spending on court costs on changing their business model they would be far more successful
  
  Bluetooth booth at the mall 50c song browse entire catalouge

  27.8.2009 04:15 #3

• Josipher

  lol ive got a few phones i could donate for that cause :)

  27.8.2009 04:29 #4

• Tristan_2

  Damn.....just....damn, It was literaly almost 2 days ago when this article was announced Mininova was sent to court....yet now in less time then the Pirate Bay Mininova is off the face of the earth. Something is obviously not right here now they can take a site down within 2 or 3 days? this is wack

  27.8.2009 06:24 #5

• Hrdrk20

  Here in the U.S.A. mininova is still operational. As for the piratebay, the site still exists but zeros are in the place of seeders and leechers. The files can still be downloaded.
  
  Proof:
  
  New movies can be found at www.movshare.net
  Use the search box rather than waiting for something decent to watch.
  All the new movies are there but don't waste your time with the download links.
  
  If you don't want to register, here's a quick test
  Username : playitagainsam
  Password : google

  27.8.2009 07:07 #6

• bugzy113

  Thank You Hrdrk20... LOL

  27.8.2009 08:52 #7

• cdxanti

  I dont know why these copyright agencies bother. If you take down one torrent site 10 more take its place. Filters will be useless because sooner or later people will find holes in them and will still be able to post copyrighted software, movies, etc. These companies may be able to hire some of the best programmers in the world but the best o the best are the ones who do freelance work and contribute to sites like mininova.

  27.8.2009 10:23 #8

• Razengan

  These futile attempts can only fuel our desire to take back from them big fat blood-sucking leeches. BIG DEAL!!!

  27.8.2009 12:21 #9

• aj123

  nooooo i use mininova 98% of the time!!!!

  27.8.2009 15:07 #10

• pereirab

  Not happy.....
  
  someone should invite me on demonoid :) haha

  27.8.2009 20:04 #11

• Ryoohki

  why would you need a demonoid invite? demonoid is a public tracker. i do have an account but most of the time i download stuff without logging in.

  27.8.2009 22:03 #12

• EricCarr

  I just went to Mini-Nova. It up and running as of right now.

  27.8.2009 22:46 #13

• Hrdrk20

  I agree with the statement that "mininova is dead" because I just went there to find new releases of District 9 and G.I.Joe only to recieve a "torrent not found" error message. From there I went to the piratebay to download working torrents.
  
  If the piratebay follows suite, downloaders will have a difficult time finding files (for now).

  28.8.2009 02:45 #14

• Gameman

  So stop using torrents which take forever to open and use rapidshare links which gives you the movie/game in about 5-10 minutes total. Just do a google search with the movie/game/cd name and add rapidshare. you'll get a load of sites where you can download it from. I've never use torrents, just got fed up with the long waits as opposed to 10-15 minutes to get it.
  
  Bill

  28.8.2009 12:34 #15

• MReprogle

  Yeah, no kidding. I'm no torrent hater, but it is an older technology. I use them for things that are old and hard to find elsewhere, but with newsgroups and filehosts, I can steadily download 3.5 MBs instead of 300kbps (on faster torrents). I'm fine with waiting for download, but there's no reason to freak out. There are better services out there already..

  28.8.2009 14:10 #16

• blizz26

  Originally posted by Ryoohki: why would you need a demonoid invite? demonoid is a public tracker. i do have an account but most of the time i download stuff without logging in.Without a invite you dont have access to the new files just old ones.

  28.8.2009 15:25 #17

• engage16

  all we have to do is give the files bs names and descriptions then make a repository on some random site of what the files really are...

  29.8.2009 01:18 #18

• blizz26

  Originally posted by engage16: all we have to do is give the files bs names and descriptions then make a repository on some random site of what the files really are...I agree like the files names are in code of what they are and a key to decipher what they are. Like the Enigma decoder like the germans use but no so complex. Encrypt the files. Ftp works pretty good. people started using them for awhile to share files but it seemed that it didnt take off very well. Alot to torrentbox files have a number instead od the file name. you see what you want to download but the file your downloadings name is a number. This is also why files are divided in seperate rar's. Its not a working game, movie etc until you put the rar's together(Extract). The fact is that mininova and piratebay are in trouble because the are basically the middleman. They help you find the illegal software. Here in the US if you know about a crime and dont rat the persons out, your guilty because you know about it and did nothing. We have lots of different conspiracy charges the police make up. Here if you drive throught a known drug neiborhood and the cops stop you they can get you for conspiracy to buy drugs even if you tell them you got lost and ended up there. They you were tring to buy drugs even know you just got lost and ended up in the wrong neiborhood. They can even take your vehicle. Im talking from experience here in the Boston area.

  29.8.2009 10:29 #19

• engage16

  Quote:Originally posted by engage16: all we have to do is give the files bs names and descriptions then make a repository on some random site of what the files really are...I agree like the files names are in code of what they are and a key to decipher what they are. Like the Enigma decoder like the germans use but no so complex. Encrypt the files. Ftp works pretty good. people started using them for awhile to share files but it seemed that it didnt take off very well. Alot to torrentbox files have a number instead od the file name. you see what you want to download but the file your downloadings name is a number. This is also why files are divided in seperate rar's. Its not a working game, movie etc until you put the rar's together(Extract). The fact is that mininova and piratebay are in trouble because the are basically the middleman. They help you find the illegal software. Here in the US if you know about a crime and dont rat the persons out, your guilty because you know about it and did nothing. We have lots of different conspiracy charges the police make up. Here if you drive throught a known drug neiborhood and the cops stop you they can get you for conspiracy to buy drugs even if you tell them you got lost and ended up there. They you were tring to buy drugs even know you just got lost and ended up in the wrong neiborhood. They can even take your vehicle. Im talking from experience here in the Boston area.Trust me I know that is totally true, I live in the far end of Mass and know how corrrupt things can get... And this whole universal health care has f'ed up our state soooo bad! Back on topic though... As long as the files are misnamed and packed in .RAR format with a password. It is ILLEGAL for ANYONE to break any password or encryption. So we couldn't be held accountable for what they tried bringing us to court for...

  29.8.2009 10:54 #20

• blizz26

  Quote:Quote:Originally posted by engage16: all we have to do is give the files bs names and descriptions then make a repository on some random site of what the files really are...I agree like the files names are in code of what they are and a key to decipher what they are. Like the Enigma decoder like the germans use but no so complex. Encrypt the files. Ftp works pretty good. people started using them for awhile to share files but it seemed that it didnt take off very well. Alot to torrentbox files have a number instead od the file name. you see what you want to download but the file your downloadings name is a number. This is also why files are divided in seperate rar's. Its not a working game, movie etc until you put the rar's together(Extract). The fact is that mininova and piratebay are in trouble because the are basically the middleman. They help you find the illegal software. Here in the US if you know about a crime and dont rat the persons out, your guilty because you know about it and did nothing. We have lots of different conspiracy charges the police make up. Here if you drive throught a known drug neiborhood and the cops stop you they can get you for conspiracy to buy drugs even if you tell them you got lost and ended up there. They you were tring to buy drugs even know you just got lost and ended up in the wrong neiborhood. They can even take your vehicle. Im talking from experience here in the Boston area.Trust me I know that is totally true, I live in the far end of Mass and know how corrrupt things can get... And this whole universal health care has f'ed up our state soooo bad! Back on topic though... As long as the files are misnamed and packed in .RAR format with a password. It is ILLEGAL for ANYONE to break any password or encryption. So we couldn't be held accountable for what they tried bringing us to court for... So if I have an encrypted file of password protected rar they cant open it? Or is it the other way around?

  29.8.2009 11:02 #21

• FreqNasty

  Quote:Originally posted by Ryoohki: why would you need a demonoid invite? demonoid is a public tracker. i do have an account but most of the time i download stuff without logging in.Without a invite you dont have access to the new files just old ones.I think it is the other way around. If you're not a member you have access to the new stuff but not torrents older than 2 weeks. That's how it was last time i went there without logging in anyway.

  29.8.2009 20:51 #22

• pmshah

  Torrent is a method of distribution used by many of the Linux distros. The small outfits especially need them to limit their expenses by way of bandwidth usage.
  
  Unless the torrent is pretty old they open very fast and download at almost the speed allowed by your ISP.
  
  With hash checks on every segement of the files there is also one certainty that the file one gets is EXACTLY what the original poster put up. Unless the original poster includes - knowingly or unknowingly - any virus your files are always CLEAN
  
  With P2P you have all kinds of problems.
  
  Just because someone uses a knife to murder another person you can't ban the legitimate use of it.
  
  In my guesstimate over 95% of the downloaders would not be buying what they acquire in this manner. Am just wondering what would happen to Internet traffic if by some miracle this specific activity were to cease altogether!

  30.8.2009 01:46 #23

• blizz26

  Quote:Quote:Originally posted by Ryoohki: why would you need a demonoid invite? demonoid is a public tracker. i do have an account but most of the time i download stuff without logging in.Without a invite you dont have access to the new files just old ones.I think it is the other way around. If you're not a member you have access to the new stuff but not torrents older than 2 weeks. That's how it was last time i went there without logging in anyway.I believe that you are right. Been awhile since Ive downloaded something not signed in.

  30.8.2009 12:23 #24

• blizz26

  Originally posted by pmshah: Torrent is a method of distribution used by many of the Linux distros. The small outfits especially need them to limit their expenses by way of bandwidth usage.
  
  Unless the torrent is pretty old they open very fast and download at almost the speed allowed by your ISP.
  
  With hash checks on every segement of the files there is also one certainty that the file one gets is EXACTLY what the original poster put up. Unless the original poster includes - knowingly or unknowingly - any virus your files are always CLEAN
  
  With P2P you have all kinds of problems.
  
  Just because someone uses a knife to murder another person you can't ban the legitimate use of it.
  
  In my guesstimate over 95% of the downloaders would not be buying what they acquire in this manner. Am just wondering what would happen to Internet traffic if by some miracle this specific activity were to cease altogether! alot of stuff ive downloaded ive turned around and bought. When vista came out alot of programs and games didnt work. It was nice to be able to try out different programs to see if they worked with vista. Ya cant return software after u open it. This way we werent stuck with alot of software that didnt work. There are alot of pro's with torrents. Microsoft figured it out. You can use thier OS for thirty day to check it out. They encouraged people to get the OS off torrent now and they will still give you a key but they dont want to have to continue to host Win7 on thier servers. Too expensive.

  30.8.2009 12:33 #25

• ChiefBrdy

  How is it that a country which allows legalized pot and prostitution has a problem with torrents!

  1.9.2009 11:21 #26

• nikkimom

  OK so they shut down Mininova. I'm looking for alternatives to torrents, or at least a good torrent provider which is not private.
  
  I'm currently using this:
  
  Best Alternative to Mininova
  
  I find every thing using this even the old classics which no one seeds on torrents. Also i guess its better security wise, since no one is snooping on you.
  
  Always download at maximum speeds, no seeding. I find its the perfect solution. Please let me know I'm not the only one.
  

  26.11.2009 22:52 #27