DailyTech - Mininova Drops Illegal Content, Now Offers Content Distribution Services

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Internet Mininova Drops Illegal Content, Now Offers Content Distribution Services
Shane McGlaun (Blog) - November 27, 2009 7:51 AM

23 comment(s) - last by Arbie.. on Nov 30 at 10:53 AM

Site makes change to avoid $7 million fine

Illegal file sharing is the big reason there is so much pressure on file sharing sites leading to legal battles and site closures. Across the globe anti-piracy groups like the MPAA, RIAA, and many more are fighting with all they have to close sites that allow users to share content.

The most notable of the file sharing and torrent sites that has been under attack was The Pirate Bay. The admins of The Pirate Bay openly mocked the agencies that were trying to take the site offline in August going so far as to produce shirts of +10 mockery.

A site similar to The Pirate Bay called Mininova became the next big target in the war against BitTorrent sites in August. Yesterday, Mininova announced that it was being forced to limit its activities to content distribution services only. The site admins wrote in a blog post that Mininova was limiting activities to content distribution only to comply with a court ruling from August.

The ruling warned that the site operators would face up to a $7.16 million fine if they did not remove all copyrighted material from their site in a three-month period. Mininova admins say that they tried filtering systems over the last few months but have found that it was neither technically or operationally possible to implement a system that was 100% effective.

The content distribution system that was launched in 2007 will live on. The service lets publishers and artists distribute content for free to Mininova users. Mininova reports that Dutch TV broadcaster VPRO uses the system to distribute documentaries and the band Silence is Sexy released their entire album with the service in 2009.

The blog post states, “We decided that the only option is to limit Mininova to Content Distribution torrents from now on. We are still considering an appeal at this moment."

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By matt0401 on 11/27/2009 8:47:28 AM , Rating: 5

RIP

RE: :(

By StevoLincolnite on 11/27/2009 9:30:41 AM , Rating: 5

Mininova falls... and dozens will take it's place.

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RE: :(

By SunAngel on 11/27/09, Rating: -1

RE: :(

By Boze on 11/27/2009 12:42:54 PM , Rating: 5

There's a saying about stupid people making comments.

"They should keep their mouth shut." Translation: Don't open your mouth if you don't know what you're talking about, it makes you look stupid.

Torrent sites aren't going anywhere, anytime soon. Pirating isn't going anywhere, ever. The most tech savvy users will always, always find a way to circumvent any protection technology and render it nothing more than a colossal waste of time for the designer. Fortunately, the designer isn't an idiot. The designer knows that his encryption/protection/dongle can be beaten. The designer created this technology to keep the other 99% of the population in line. The smart designer isn't worried about the 1% that is smarter than he is.

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RE: :(

By Xenokyn on 11/29/2009 8:44:14 AM , Rating: 2

And a few famous quotes:

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. - Mark Twain

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. - Abraham Lincoln

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RE: :(

By mindless1 on 11/29/2009 7:55:40 PM , Rating: 2

The reality is they don't hope to keep the "most tech savvy users" from pirating, they only hope to make it difficult enough that the majority of their customer base doesn't.

This strategy IS effective. For example, car door locks and alarms can't keep the most savvy thieves out, but they do keep casual passers-by from opening the car or sticking around after activating the alarm.

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RE: :(

By jonmcc33 on 11/27/2009 3:04:42 PM , Rating: 4

I haven't used Mininova in years. Private trackers FTW!

And if you don't want to torrent? There are plenty of communities online offering downloads through file sharing websites (Rapidshare, MegaUpload, MediaFire). Just use the real warez search engine.... GOOGLE !

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RE: :(

By polaris2k4 on 11/27/2009 8:36:17 PM , Rating: 3

Wow, "warez". Now thats a word I havn't seen in a long time.

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who now?

By ashegam on 11/27/2009 9:34:31 AM , Rating: 2

so with PB and MN gone, who's the next best torrent search engine to use?

RE: who now?

By Radnor on 11/27/2009 9:35:41 AM , Rating: 4

TPB isn't gone !! Just magnet link :)

"Whoever said the pen was mightier then the sword never met automatic weapons"

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RE: who now?

By EricMartello on 11/27/2009 4:24:51 PM , Rating: 4

quote:
TPB isn't gone !! Just magnet link :)

"Whoever said the pen was mightier then the sword never met automatic weapons"

Incidentally, automatic weapons are not swords.

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RE: who now?

By HVAC on 11/28/2009 10:40:19 PM , Rating: 2

Perhaps they were referring to an automatic sword.

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RE: who now?

By BZDTemp on 11/30/2009 5:48:23 AM , Rating: 2

Exactly TPB is doing well.

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RE: who now?

By BernardP on 11/27/2009 9:45:49 AM , Rating: 2

Here is a good place to start:

http://www.torrentz.com/

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RE: who now?

By Rebel44 on 11/27/2009 9:53:58 AM , Rating: 2

btjunkie

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RE: who now?

By ertomas on 11/27/2009 2:06:03 PM , Rating: 1

SHHHHHH! Let's not make it popular!

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finally!

By TSS on 11/27/2009 9:43:47 AM , Rating: 5

Oh yes sweet glory! Finally, now that Suprnova is down the pirating is sure to stop!

....oh wait, wait, sorry, got stuck in 2 years ago.

Now that KaZaA is down pirating will surely stop!

... goddamnit that's further back, wrong way.

Now that Mininova is down, pirating will surely stop!

*reads about an isohunt spinoff site that's legally more secure but still a torrent site*

Ah i give up. If one thing this all teaches though, is that it's worth going for a career in law and applying for a MIAA/RIAA lawyer position. Theres job security for ya!

RE: finally!

By monomer on 11/27/2009 11:43:52 AM , Rating: 2

SemiAccurate had a really interesting article about how the RIAA is always fighting an uphill battle here, and everything they do just results in a faster and better replacement.

http://www.semiaccurate.com/2009/11/18/mafiaa-make...

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RE: finally!

By ayat101 on 11/27/2009 2:59:08 PM , Rating: 4

Exactly - improvement through evolution. The predators, RIAA et al, take down the weaker members of the torrent site herd, and the strongest survive and breed (get copied)... mutations arise (new ideas are implemented) and through the same process the best are left.

Duh... I feel like almost thanking the RIAA et al for helping out with the process :) Lack of pressure creates complacency and ultimately laziness... instead this way we will eventually end up with the ultimate P2P network, the homo sapiens of the torrent world :)

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RE: finally!

By 67STANG on 11/28/2009 1:00:36 AM , Rating: 2

I assume you're talking about Hexagone? =)

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fine amount

By lazylazyjoe on 11/27/2009 6:07:11 PM , Rating: 3

So the fine is 1.92 million for about 30 songs
http://torrentfreak.com/woman-hit-with-192-million... or a 7 million dollar fine for almost every copyrighted piece of work ever made, including multiple copies of most of them. That makes sense.
I know it's been brought up many times but, let's not forget that Google lists torrents, illegal webcasts, direct downloads, serials, etc. And let's not forget about the wayback machine over at archive.org. Tons of copyrighted links there too. Infact, almost every one listed publicly from 1996-2008. If sites like those are allowed to link, then so should the torrent sites. The intent of a website's links doesn't alter the content the user downloads.

If you can't beat them

By Blessedman on 11/27/2009 12:44:33 PM , Rating: 2

Ok I have said this before but if you can't beat them join them. Most of the film industry knows they cannot win this battle, so why not join them for free distribution? Release their content in it's purest digital form (massive GB files). It would provide them with two things, free content distribution to those who wish to pay for their services (those who are honest usually stay honest and those who are not rarely go back) and secondly it would push ISP's to upgrade their service to keep up with the pirates and the honest. So the studio's lose some potential sales but would more then make up for it with being able to fire their lawyer forces. They free up a lot of bandwidth (except for original posting of torrents and some seeding). The only they would ask in return would never remove the movies from seeding. It would certainty have some kinks in it at first but once the pirates realized they get free movies for a little of their bandwidth and ISP's start increasing their bandwidth things would really take off ;)

So long, and thanks for all the fichiers!

By Arbie on 11/30/2009 10:53:21 AM , Rating: 2

So long, and thanks for all the fichiers!

"Game reviewers fought each other to write the most glowing coverage possible for the powerhouse Sony, MS systems. Reviewers flipped coins to see who would review the Nintendo Wii. The losers got stuck with the job." -- Andy Marken