Mininova
Encyclopedia
Mininova is a website
offering BitTorrent downloads. Mininova was once one of the largest sites offering torrents of copyright
ed material, but in November 2009, following legal action in the Dutch
courts, the site operators deleted all torrent files uploaded by regular users including torrents that enabled users to download copyrighted material.
and was launched in January 2005 as a successor to Suprnova.org
, which went offline at the end of 2004 following legal difficulties. In April 2007, Mininova B.V. (the company running Mininova.org) won a domain dispute about the domain mininova.com, which had been exploited by a phisher.
The word ‘mininova’ ranked 9 on Google’s list of most queried terms in 2006. In May 2008, Mininova indicated that there had been over 5 billion downloads via the site. Mininova also runs a video sharing site, called Snotr.
ruled that Mininova should remove all torrent files pointing to copyrighted material within three months or face damages of up to €
5 million.
On November 26, 2009, Mininova announced that it could not find a foolproof filtering system against copyrighted content, and limited its platform to Content Distribution
torrents only, in compliance with the ruling of the Utrecht court. This resulted in more than 99.3% of the torrents on the site being removed. As a consequence, the website traffic dropped by 66% in a few days, and daily downloads fell down to 4% of the previous total. According to Alexa Internet
, the daily traffic rank in the USA dropped from within the top 100 ranked sites in Early November 2009 to below 1000 on January 30, 2010.
Mininova appealed against the court ruling, and in December 2010 reported that a settlement had been reached under which Mininova paid BREIN an undisclosed amount of money, ending the lawsuit.
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
offering BitTorrent downloads. Mininova was once one of the largest sites offering torrents of copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
ed material, but in November 2009, following legal action in the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
courts, the site operators deleted all torrent files uploaded by regular users including torrents that enabled users to download copyrighted material.
Site history
The site is based in the NetherlandsNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and was launched in January 2005 as a successor to Suprnova.org
Suprnova.org
Suprnova.org was a Slovenia-based website which distributed torrents for various music and video files, computer programs and games. Started in late 2002 by Andrej Preston and for a while considered the most popular BitTorrent search engine, Suprnova.org closed in late 2004 after legal threats...
, which went offline at the end of 2004 following legal difficulties. In April 2007, Mininova B.V. (the company running Mininova.org) won a domain dispute about the domain mininova.com, which had been exploited by a phisher.
The word ‘mininova’ ranked 9 on Google’s list of most queried terms in 2006. In May 2008, Mininova indicated that there had been over 5 billion downloads via the site. Mininova also runs a video sharing site, called Snotr.
Legal action
In May 2009, the Dutch copyright enforcement organization BREIN started a civil procedure against Mininova demanding that Mininova filter torrent files pointing to copyrighted works. During the proceedings, Mininova stated that it was not feasible for the site to identify such files, but said that it would remove torrent files that BREIN identified as infringing copyright. On May 6, 2009, Mininova began a trial of a content recognition system, which was intended to remove any torrents that were flagged as infringing copyright. On August 26, 2009, the court in UtrechtUtrecht (city)
Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...
ruled that Mininova should remove all torrent files pointing to copyrighted material within three months or face damages of up to €
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
5 million.
On November 26, 2009, Mininova announced that it could not find a foolproof filtering system against copyrighted content, and limited its platform to Content Distribution
Content delivery
Content delivery describes the delivery of media content such as audio, video, computer software and video games over a delivery medium such as broadcasting or the Internet.Content delivery has two parts:...
torrents only, in compliance with the ruling of the Utrecht court. This resulted in more than 99.3% of the torrents on the site being removed. As a consequence, the website traffic dropped by 66% in a few days, and daily downloads fell down to 4% of the previous total. According to Alexa Internet
Alexa Internet
Alexa Internet, Inc. is a California-based subsidiary company of Amazon.com that is known for its toolbar and Web site. Once installed, the toolbar collects data on browsing behavior which is transmitted to the Web site where it is stored and analyzed and is the basis for the company's Web traffic...
, the daily traffic rank in the USA dropped from within the top 100 ranked sites in Early November 2009 to below 1000 on January 30, 2010.
Mininova appealed against the court ruling, and in December 2010 reported that a settlement had been reached under which Mininova paid BREIN an undisclosed amount of money, ending the lawsuit.