AfterDawn: Tech news

Mininova removes all illegal torrents

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 28 Nov 2009 2:53 User comments (46)

Mininova removes all illegal torrents The once-giant torrent tracker Mininova has removed all illegal torrents this week, following the ruling of a Netherlands court that told the tracker that it must begin removing links to unauthorized downloads.
Mininova used to have a "notice and take down" policy in which copyright-holders would have to flag the content before it would be taken down. The court ruled that policy insufficient.

The tracker is now only host to a limited "featured content" service which offers legally licensed files.

Adds Tim Kuik, director of BREIN, the Dutch anti-piracy group: "We applaud the fact that Mininova now uses the BitTorrent technology for legal business. We are not against the technology but only against the use of that technology for illegal purposes."



Mininova did say they are still considering an appeal but at this point it seems less and less likely.

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46 user comments

128.11.2009 15:28

Demonoid has been down for "maintenance" for the longest time, TPB is out, and now mininova is gone. Looks like most of the decent choices are going away.

228.11.2009 15:32

Oh please. Private sites are so the way to go. All you get on public sites are viruses. It's a great place to put my auto-clicking Adsense spyware on a "Black Edition" XP FAST VERSION OMG OMG OMG.torrent.

328.11.2009 15:41

Private sites are nice but fickle and public ones can be a handfull...so in the end know WTF it is you are doing or be eaten like the dog you are :P

428.11.2009 17:03

As long as you aren't a complete idiot any torrent site is ok. I just don't like the site themselves as most of them have some kind of porn ad -_-'' I can block, but it just reeks of "Download from here and you're f'd"

528.11.2009 17:22

No wonder Mininova is crap

TPB is not out, you can go and download there





Save the dolphins, be part of The Cove
http://www.takepart.com/thecove

628.11.2009 17:23

Originally posted by 21Q:
Demonoid has been down for "maintenance" for the longest time, TPB is out, and now mininova is gone. Looks like most of the decent choices are going away.

Not sure what you mean by "being out", TPB still works just fine for me.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 28 Nov 2009 @ 5:25

728.11.2009 17:46

TPB has only stopped it's tracker. If you have any torrents still running with the old tracker then add "http://tracker.openbittorrent.com/announce" to your download then viola!! it will be up and running again.
Mininova was only an index site and the biggest index site in the world is google, BUT heres a tip for the uninformed, download the scroogle addon and that way your search will not be logged for more than 48hrs. Dont trust google for searching for torrents, everything is logged and stored.

828.11.2009 20:25
jony218
Inactive

I guess "the man" is finally having some success in stopping the rampant illegal downloads. Never sell "the man" out short. Everyone thought "the man" was down for the count with the "rootkit" fiasco, but his misfires only has made "the man" stronger.
The Pirate bay has been a thorn on "the man" side for a long time, but eventually "the man" will deliver a knowdown punch.
It's not over till oprah (aka the fat lady) sings.

928.11.2009 21:42

piracy still continues no change

1028.11.2009 22:34

Originally posted by tatsh:
Oh please. Private sites are so the way to go. All you get on public sites are viruses. It's a great place to put my auto-clicking Adsense spyware on a "Black Edition" XP FAST VERSION OMG OMG OMG.torrent.

Wrong. If you have half a brain, you can spot a virus torrent easy. And newsflash: they CAN pop up on private trackers, too!

1129.11.2009 09:47

IsoHunt!

1229.11.2009 23:17

So, this means they get away with everything? No fines/prison/etc? TPB should have done the same thing.

1330.11.2009 02:26

This is just as bad as SceneTorrents getting shut down.

1430.11.2009 05:55

This isn't a big deal, it is nothing short of incredible that they went this long. As mentioned, people will just go elsewhere for their piracy needs.

To everyone waiting for Demonoid to come back - They have updated their page, it seems now that the person whom they were waiting for to do the recovery does not have the backups. They are re-building the site from a much older backup, and hope to have it up soon; though all torrents and accounts created since a few months before the crash will be lost.

1530.11.2009 10:08

Who cares. UseNet FTW!

161.12.2009 16:44

TO me, the best about Mininova was that it had those categories of new things right on the front page. I stumbled upon plenty of cool new things that way. Does anyone know of any torrent site that uses the same structure?

171.12.2009 16:51

Originally posted by bassdog69:
Who cares. UseNet FTW!
If you pay 150+ a year for free stuff you are being robbed!!

181.12.2009 20:52

I'm not sure if I follow the legal argument here...
Mini Nova was an indexing site and as such did not host any files, trackers or otherwise.
This is no different than Google or Yahoo.

Is Google now going to have to remove all links to kiddy porn?

The thing that makes the Torrent indexing sites good is that you can comment on the torrents to see which are good and which are spam.
TPB was very good at this, Mini Nova is fair, Some of the other, less known ones are not quite as good, and Google has no comments at all.

I wonder if the solution here is to write a plugin for Google so people can just leave comments with various torrent search results to be seen right in Google, kinda like the Xmarks thing.

191.12.2009 20:56

Originally posted by ThePastor:
I'm not sure if I follow the legal argument here...
Mini Nova was an indexing site and as such did not host any files, trackers or otherwise.
This is no different than Google or Yahoo.

Is Google now going to have to remove all links to kiddy porn?

The thing that makes the Torrent indexing sites good is that you can comment on the torrents to see which are good and which are spam.
TPB was very good at this, Mini Nova is fair, Some of the other, less known ones are not quite as good, and Google has no comments at all.

I wonder if the solution here is to write a plugin for Google so people can just leave comments with various torrent search results to be seen right in Google, kinda like the Xmarks thing.
It dose not matter anymore if you have alot of money and are able to bring them to court you are able to make them submit just so they don;t have to go to court.

202.12.2009 11:45

tpb and isohunt are the the 2 best right now

212.12.2009 22:08

Originally posted by joe777:
TPB has only stopped it's tracker. If you have any torrents still running with the old tracker then add "http://tracker.openbittorrent.com/announce" to your download then viola!! it will be up and running again.
Mininova was only an index site and the biggest index site in the world is google, BUT heres a tip for the uninformed, download the scroogle addon and that way your search will not be logged for more than 48hrs. Dont trust google for searching for torrents, everything is logged and stored.
Ya i wouldnt touch TPB with a 10ft eithernet cable.Anyone ever see how many people are watching there every move you dont think the mmafia has there cronies checkin out everything that goes thru there any more especialy since TPB pretty much spit in there face and continued on with probably the shortest shut down in history of the net.Way to go TPB but I will not for one go near it.

222.12.2009 23:06

Quote:
Originally posted by bassdog69:
Who cares. UseNet FTW!
If you pay 150+ a year for free stuff you are being robbed!!
Who pays $150 a year for free stuff??? I paid $10 ONCE to join a premium private UseNet site where I can download ANYTHING I want. There are only 2 things I have ever wanted that were exclusive to torrents and those were on the UseNet about 6 months later after I requested them. Also, I download at close to 3MEG per SECOND. When I use to d/l torrents I was waiting up to a WEEK to d/l a couple of gigs! Torrents are so dead.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 02 Dec 2009 @ 11:08

232.12.2009 23:08

Quote:
Quote:
Originally posted by bassdog69:
Who cares. UseNet FTW!
If you pay 150+ a year for free stuff you are being robbed!!
Who pays $150 a year for free stuff??? I paid $10 ONCE to join a premium private site where I can download just about ANYTHING I want. There are only 2 things I have ever wanted that were exclusive to torrents and those were on the UseNet about 6 months later after I requested them. Also, I download at close to 3MEG per SECOND. When I use to d/l torrents I was waiting up to a WEEK to d/l a couple of gigs! Torrents are so dead.

Most of the sites I have seen are 5-15 EU a month 0-o

242.12.2009 23:16

Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Originally posted by bassdog69:
Who cares. UseNet FTW!
If you pay 150+ a year for free stuff you are being robbed!!
Who pays $150 a year for free stuff??? I paid $10 ONCE to join a premium private site where I can download just about ANYTHING I want. There are only 2 things I have ever wanted that were exclusive to torrents and those were on the UseNet about 6 months later after I requested them. Also, I download at close to 3MEG per SECOND. When I use to d/l torrents I was waiting up to a WEEK to d/l a couple of gigs! Torrents are so dead.

Most of the sites I have seen are 5-15 EU a month 0-o

Your probably think of the NewsSERVER. Yes, I do pay $10 a month for a CONNECTION to the UseNet but so what? Would you rather have a 8G file d/l in 15 minutes or use a torrent a wait several days AND have to upload at the same time and risk getting letters in the mail and/or SUED? $10 is a VERY small price to pay for time, content, and security. It's a no-brainer. In my opinion, people that still use torrents are either cheap, ignorant, or just plain stupid.

252.12.2009 23:30

Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Originally posted by bassdog69:
Who cares. UseNet FTW!
If you pay 150+ a year for free stuff you are being robbed!!
Who pays $150 a year for free stuff??? I paid $10 ONCE to join a premium private site where I can download just about ANYTHING I want. There are only 2 things I have ever wanted that were exclusive to torrents and those were on the UseNet about 6 months later after I requested them. Also, I download at close to 3MEG per SECOND. When I use to d/l torrents I was waiting up to a WEEK to d/l a couple of gigs! Torrents are so dead.

Most of the sites I have seen are 5-15 EU a month 0-o

Your probably think of the NewsSERVER. Yes, I do pay $10 a month for a CONNECTION to the UseNet but so what? Would you rather have a 8G file d/l in 15 minutes or use a torrent a wait several days AND have to upload at the same time and risk getting letters in the mail and/or SUED? $10 is a VERY small price to pay for time, content, and security. It's a no-brainer. In my opinion, people that still use torrents are either cheap, ignorant, or just plain stupid.
I don't need speed, I can deal with virus and peer guardian dose a fair job of keep off "bad" peers/seeders.



As for being sued its rather silly to be worried about a 1 in a million train wreck. Besides the crap I download is not part of the main drool fest of the media mafia. Hell IMO by paying for it you are criminal so meh lighting will hit one day and hit you as well as they go after usenet for piracy and selling a service in trafficking illicit goods without a license but I am not too worried about it.

And ya ad revue trackers and donational based ones are just as bad but the media mafia wont be changing its tune about how copyright works(copyright should focus on profit, if its not making a profit its not infringing on copyright its fans being fans and the free market being un stagnated by monopolies) anyway at least I don't have to spend money on data 80% of the time even if I buy stuff every other month at 5-35$ a game.


PS: As for being ignorant,ect....those that claim victory or superiority tend to be spineless aholes who are blissfully living in their own pew. :P

PSS:10X12 is 120 a year......for free shit.......
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 02 Dec 2009 @ 11:31

262.12.2009 23:58

"I don't need speed"
Well, I love it. Why would I want to sit around for days, when I can have my content in 10-15 minutes. Maybe you don't have better things to do but I do, lol.

"I can deal with virus"
Well, great, but I don't have to. I only d/l what has already been reviewed.

"by paying for it you are criminal so meh lighting will hit one day and hit you as well as they go after usenet for piracy"
Oh, and if I DON'T pay for it I am NOT criminal?

"but I am not too worried about it."
Neither am I, but I have had SEVERAL friends who HAVE gotten letters for using torrents. Not me.

"As for being ignorant,ect....those that claim victory or superiority tend to be spineless aholes who are blissfully living in their own pew."
The definition of ignorant is: lacking in knowledge or training; unlearned. All I was saying is that most people who use torrents are probably not even AWARE of the UseNet. They are IGNORANT.

"10X12 is 120 a year......for free shit....... "
"even if I buy stuff every other month at 5-35$ a game."
12x35=$430 a year, which is $300 more than I spend. FOR FREE SHIT! LOL... ;)

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 03 Dec 2009 @ 12:03

273.12.2009 00:19

Quote:

Well, I love it. Why would I want to sit around for days, when I can have my content in 10-15 minutes. Maybe you don't have better things to do but I do, lol.

I am paying 60$ a month for 1.5DSL I could get 3.0 for 70$ but thats the only options out here, well they have a slower/cheaper one but :P

Besides free>fast

Quote:
Well, great, but I don't have to. I only d/l what has already been reviewed.

Same thing here and funny as how I never got one from the reviewed stuff.


Quote:
Oh, and if I DON'T pay for it I am NOT criminal?

No becuse between fair use,ect one can not infringe in that way, its no different than borrowing it. Its when an unlicensed exchange of money happens that's when the line is crossed, its only a shame that they feel that anythign other than renting is a crime.....
Quote:

Neither am I, but I have had SEVERAL friends who HAVE gotten letters for using torrents. Not me.

Yes...email "letters" tend to be trumped up BS the CP holder cna not pay a company to troll for them it has to be directly from the company.


Quote:
The definition of ignorant is: lacking in knowledge or training; unlearned. All I was saying is that most people who use torrents are probably not even AWARE of the UseNet. They are IGNORANT.
As for being ignorant,ect....those that claim victory or superiority tend to be spineless aholes who are blissfully living in their own pew.

Quote:

12x35=$430 a year, which is $300 more than I spend. FOR FREE SHIT! LOL... ;)
Its not free becuse I bought it and own it silly. ^^

283.12.2009 00:47

For me this is a big blow because i used this site daily and now have to rely on backup sites.

I hope something like mininova startup again soo i loved how organised this site was compared to there sites.

Comisserations Mininova.

294.12.2009 08:01

that's why i didnt find any torrent to download on Mininova and to be honest it was one of my favorite torrent places,but in fact TPB is not working for me any more,the website is working fine but the tracker is not working any more for weeks now (i get OFFLINE for the TPB tracker)

is it out or what?

304.12.2009 08:02

Well, the big 3 are down for the count! They have robot apps attacking sites and the clients. The labels are winning the war.

cyprusrom, how are you selecting torrents? Not through a TPB site? Demoniod is the same. The trackers are working but the interface is gone so no new uploads and the browsers like ISOhunt only browse new stuff.

314.12.2009 09:09

Anyone who thinks TPB is "down" or "gone" is simply wrong; they've merely gone to a DHT/PEX (Distributed Hash-Table/Peer Exchange) method for tracking torrents. This move completely obviates any need for a centralized tracker.

NEWSFLASH: You do not have to have ANY tracker enabled or added for a given torrent! That's right, not a damn one, unless a given torrent has the "No DHT/PEX" flag set (never an issue with a magnet URI). Just d/l the torrent file or "magnet URI" (very similar to an eD2k magnet link), make sure DHT and PEX are enabled, and go. The only caveat is that magnet URIs take just a bit longer to start than centrally-tracked torrents.

If you think Usenet is oh-so-much faster than torrents, how come I can easily max my 2-3 MB/s down pipe with torrents? Every file transfer method has its merits and flaws, and Usenet is no exception. Hell, eMule still has its uses, slow as it tends to be!

Yeah, BitTorrent is less secure than Usenet. So? It's also FREE. I categorically refuse to pay for pirated content! Additionally, BitTorrent not only makes it much easier to share content with others than Usenet, it enforces at least partial sharing by every user who is downloading (unless they run a hacked client). That's much closer to the ideals of the sharing community than Usenet's paradigm of paid-for leeching, frankly.

Get off that high horse, turns out it's just a rocker.

324.12.2009 11:29

Originally posted by Shinraboy:
TO me, the best about Mininova was that it had those categories of new things right on the front page. I stumbled upon plenty of cool new things that way. Does anyone know of any torrent site that uses the same structure?
Try SUMO Torrent they are category tagged and the Home tab has a short list of current stuff for each category.

SUMO Torrent

UseNet is not so secure you can easily be tracked from it and paying ten bucks a month? I don't think so. Plus when UseNet gets busted, and they will, your name, location, credit card information will be handed over to people you may not want to have that info, like the FBI or Interpole. I like a VPN tunnel but if you have to pay then you open yourself up as well if they get popped.

My DL's are very fast typically with torrent sites by allowing multiple connections and openning the correct ports in my firewall. I've DL'd a DVD9 program in less then one day with a good site with plenty of seeders/leechers and I paid nothing so you can throw $10 away every month if you want, not me I can waste my money on better things!

334.12.2009 12:07

Bozobub, I could often find something on the PB site that I couldn't find of something like ISOhunt. The same with all the sites. The search engines work differently. Plus I REALLY liked the PB site. Lastly, I don't think much is being loaded now. You are just feeding off the the fat. I haven't dne much is a few months but I am seeing maybe a quarter of torrents seeded than only a few month ago. You aren't seeing that? Buring the trackers keeps them hanging in there but it is still dying on the vine. I hope not, but then I hope to win the lottery.

344.12.2009 16:28

Mez, that seems a little odd, considering Isohunt scans TPB (along with many other trackers and aggregator sites) regularly for new torrents, but w/e. I also go to TPB often, rather than Isohunt, simply because users comment far more often and (usually) more usefully. Honestly, you'll find the most content with a Google search for "{content name} ext:torrent", but the results can be a bit much to wade through.

I think a lot of the "dropoff" in new torrents on TPB is due to misinformation ("TPB is dead! Oh noes!") and/or lack of knowledge, how to generate a magnet URI, for one. *shrug* Cyclic changes are pretty common. I've noticed no extra difficulty in obtaining any given content...

The main reason for my post was the blatant snobbery vis-a-vis Usenet. It's exactly as annoying as RS (or any other version) fanboyism; if you like it, great, good for you, but so what? Everyone has their own preferences, often for quite good reasons.

Fanboys... Meh. *spits*

354.12.2009 20:27
pspbarry
Inactive

ThePastor

I'm not sure if I follow the legal argument here...
Mini Nova was an indexing site and as such did not host any files, trackers or otherwise.
This is no different than Google or Yahoo.

------------------------------------------------------------------
isnt it? if i dont own a gun, but tell someone where to get one, am i not in some way responcable for the users action ? dont get me wrong i have loved torrents, but for years i have wondered how long can it go on, also those of you saying iam ok jack F*** you do you think it will stop at torrents? there on the war path and the news groups will be next after all the torrent sites are closed down.

rip torrent spy, mininova, pirate bay......

364.12.2009 20:33

Bozobub, you are a man after my own heart. I love to wack snops but more fools. I don't even mind getting wacked if the snob or fool is me.

The search mechinism varies from one site to another as it sifts through all the data each finds things the others missed.

I am sure one reason people are stopping torrents are all those 'filty spiders' trying to get into you computer. They have 'learned' to disrupt peerguardian so they can get into your computer even when you are running it.

375.12.2009 00:13

I think it very unfair to stop torrent downloads the film companies and tv producers make millions but it is still not enough they always more.

387.12.2009 15:24

pspbarry, if you spend enough money you can get what you want. The media mafia is running their reign of terror. The shut down TPB for less. (I know it is not TOTALLY down either is Demonoid but both lost their web sites and their income.) I think they will shut torrents down. Might makes right. Then they will work on the newsgroups. One can only hope they run out of money. Without money no one will lift a fingure to help those greedy bastards.

397.12.2009 16:57

Erm, TPB has not lost their website. I downloaded a movie off TPB yesterday -.-' .

407.12.2009 18:31

I tried just last week and it wasn't there but just now it has come back to life. Great news!

417.12.2009 18:59
scum101
Inactive

Mez mate.. th problem currently with TPB is most of the torrents are still "private" .. only accept peers from tracker. Now with no tracker they are dead in the water.. There are a whole stack of new trackers coming on stream and when they get up and running it's going to be a whole world more pain.. wait till the russians get the idea of the public/private tracker with advertising...

Don't know about you but I don't trust dht style enough.. my blocker filled in seconds when I finally found something legal which had seeds.

427.12.2009 20:07

Not one of the torrents on TPB requires a tracker. Simply delete the old tracker info if the terror message bothers you, and make sure DHT/PEX are enabled.

438.12.2009 15:36

Well, if you don't think Google does the same thing as TPB try this google search:
Torrent illegal "New Moon"
And tell me if google is not giving you links to ILLEGAL TORRENT downloads for the movie "New Moon".
This is exactly the same thing as TPB or MiniNova.

As for the "new" Pirate Bay... it really sucks. It's filled with popups and other ads and is not nearly as usable as the old one was.

I tried Usnet for a month and that was much more difficult to use. I was starting to get the hang of it but the torrents indexed on TPB were much easier. By the time I got the hang of it it was time to send them another $10 and I decided I just didn't need it that bad.

The current issue I have with torrents is that I've been flagged with Cease emails a couple of times.
I'm not too worried about them but the person who pays for our Inet access is... and as requested that NO MORE cease emails come in.

So now I'm in a bit of a quandry and am not sure where to go now.

448.12.2009 15:38

Originally posted by ThePastor:
Well, if you don't think Google does the same thing as TPB try this google search:
Torrent illegal "New Moon"
And tell me if google is not giving you links to ILLEGAL TORRENT downloads for the movie "New Moon".
This is exactly the same thing as TPB or MiniNova.

As for the "new" Pirate Bay... it really sucks. It's filled with popups and other ads and is not nearly as usable as the old one was.

I tried Usnet for a month and that was much more difficult to use. I was starting to get the hang of it but the torrents indexed on TPB were much easier. By the time I got the hang of it it was time to send them another $10 and I decided I just didn't need it that bad.

The current issue I have with torrents is that I've been flagged with Cease emails a couple of times.
I'm not too worried about them but the person who pays for our Inet access is... and as requested that NO MORE cease emails come in.

So now I'm in a bit of a quandry and am not sure where to go now.
Well the argument could be made that TPB is directly linking to torrents and making a direct profit off ad revenue and or donations by directly linking to only cp infringing links.

Take a look at my CP thoughts

http://forums.afterdawn.com/t.cfm/f-45/t...820376/#4954165
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 08 Dec 2009 @ 3:39

458.12.2009 16:29

Google directly links to torrents as well, and Google search pages are filled with ads.

My point is that if Mini-Nova is "guilty" here, then so is every search engine on the net.
Meaning, that I cannot accept the legal argument that says that Mini-Nova is guilty and has to "pull" links to illegal torents. Because if they are, then Google will also have to pull their links or risk being prosecuted.
And if the precident stands you could theroetically bring down every search engine on the net which indexes any kind of illegal website.

468.12.2009 17:09

Originally posted by ThePastor:
Google directly links to torrents as well, and Google search pages are filled with ads.

My point is that if Mini-Nova is "guilty" here, then so is every search engine on the net.
Meaning, that I cannot accept the legal argument that says that Mini-Nova is guilty and has to "pull" links to illegal torents. Because if they are, then Google will also have to pull their links or risk being prosecuted.
And if the precident stands you could theroetically bring down every search engine on the net which indexes any kind of illegal website.
Er...I meant that they only do torrents and make money off off only doing torrents, Google dose the net and only prioritizes stuff certain governments do not what their regions to see.

See the difference? :P

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