Mininova: Over 8 Billion Downloads, Faces Court
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: Mininova, BitTorrent, Torrent, Download | Themes: Digital Entertainment
Evidently, The Pirate Bay isn't the only BitTorrent search engine scheduled to walk the plank. Even though Mininova scored its eight billionth download over the weekend, the masterminds behind the site are suffering legal issues as well.
Evidently, The Pirate Bay isn't the only BitTorrent search engine scheduled to walk the plank. Even though Mininova scored its eight billionth download over the weekend, the masterminds behind the site are suffering legal issues as well.
The numbers are quite staggering as a consumer, no less than horrifying to copyright owners: 10,425,164 in downloads yesterday alone, flying through the Internet pipes at 120.7 per second. BitTorrent search engine Mininova also recorded over 10 millions searches at 119.7 per second yesterday as well, and 3,177 new torrents were added on Easter Sunday, averaging just over 2 per minute. To this day, Mininova has tracked a whopping 8,035,456,162 downloads as of 1 PM this afternoon; over 8 billion BitTorrent downloads since it opened virtual shop back in January 2005. And just think: all those numbers are related to just one website.
So what's up for grabs today? Let's see... how about the Dragon Ball Evolution movie that just hit theaters? Or better yet, the controversial X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie leaked a few weeks back. Eminem's We Made You has more seeds than a flowerbed, and a Top 40 singles UK compilation sits at the top of the front-page music section with 1969 leechers attached. Windows 7 Build 7106, Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended (clean, mind you), and Bit Defender Total Security 2009 are just a few featured software titles, and for those looking for a new Nintendo DS game, there's plenty to download including Smiley World Island Challenge, Tuan's favorite DS title Dora Saves the Mermaids, and even My Animal Centre.
Is it any wonder that Mininova is facing legal issues? "Our goal is to provide an easy-to-use directory and search engine for all kinds of torrent files," reads the official FAQ. "Visitors of Mininova can anonymously upload torrents to this website, tracked by any BitTorrent tracker. Scrape data (amount of seeds/leechers) is collected a few times a day." Now here's the real kicker: "Note that we try to keep Mininova family-safe, so adult submissions are not allowed," the FAQ says. Although the search engine doesn't host actual pirated material, it does host the torrent leading to the copyrighted material, "family safe" copyrighted material at that.
On May 28, 2008, the site administrators reported in a Mininova blog that Dutch anti-piracy organization BREIN filed a lawsuit against the organization, stemming from a demand that site administrators place a filter into the search engine that would remove leads to copyright material. The torrent themselves aren't illegal; it's usually the associated content "seeded" via multiple BitTorrent users' PCs. Implementing a filter into the system would mean that uploaded torrents would not appear in the search engine. But as Mininova states, some countries actually do allow end-users to download copyrighted material; a filter would infringe on those users' rights.
However, because neither BREIN nor Mininova could reach an agreement, BREIN pushed for a full-fledged lawsuit. Mininova remained un-phased. "We will proceed to court with full confidence, and defend our unique position in the BitTorrent world and our current copyright policy," the company said. "The court decision will be important for many other community-driven websites, like Google and YouTube." The company also said that the lawsuit will take several years, taking place in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
For the moment, Mininova is moving along as usual, now located in a new office in downtown Utrecht. The company also implemented a new content distribution service into the website, enabling content creators to easily publish their goods for free. Mininova takes a hit in the wallet by sponsoring the seeding bandwidth, however Mininova users will benefit from this new system by accessing premium content with high transfer speeds.
Ultimately, Mininova may not need to worry about its current lawsuit with BREIN. Government laws and ISP regulation may ultimately become the new DRM for the entire world; namely the new IPRED law set forth in Sweden, and the upcoming bandwidth tiers put into place by local BSPs Comcast and Time Warner. It will come to a point where legit downloaders can't even grab a few movies and episodes of Nip/Tuck from iTunes without going over the limit much less waste valuable bandwidth by downloading a pirated copy the campy BloodRayne 2 movie.
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Bandwidth limitation is BAD BAD idea. What about those of use that use VPN's to move large files (like movie productions) from home to work. I'm sure I use 100's of Gigabytes worth of bandwidth weekly.
So I'm currently trying to hold back the stream of joyous obscenities. I can't stand bullies in any environment. Whether the MPAA, RIAA, whomever. That combined with an intriguing legal argument definitely has my interest piqued. Currently hoping for something as unique as the King Kong Defense employed by thepiratebay.org. Im worried that if things like this continue, we'll end up with Microsoft suing because of the countless linux distros it claims violate appx 200 of IP's.
So I'm currently trying to hold back the stream of joyous obscenities. I can't stand bullies in any environment. Whether the MPAA, RIAA, whomever. That combined with an intriguing legal argument definitely has my interest piqued. Currently hoping for something as unique as the King Kong Defense employed by thepiratebay.org. Im worried that if things like this continue, we'll end up with Microsoft suing because of the countless linux distros it claims violate appx 200 of IP's.
crap. double post. sorry.
...Tuan's favorite DS title Dora Saves the Mermaids...
Sweet! That game ROCKED!
Deja Vu
Who plays DS games with an emulator? Doesn't that defeat the whole Touch-Screen and portability aspect of the hald-held nature of the DS? I suppose the games are fun regardless.
All these torrent-hosting lawsuits are obsurd. The companys are trying to implement copyright-law through obscurity. We should sue publishers of law-books. Think about it, every law book (textbook, reference, whatever) lists hundreds or thousands of crimes. Often times the books include examples of how to commit such crimes, surreptitiously disguised as "precedence" or "case-law".
Dont worry man, even Mr. Parrish did that in the article. lol.
Evidently, The Pirate Bay isn't the only BitTorrent search engine scheduled to walk the plank. Even though Mininova scored its eight billionth download over the weekend, the masterminds behind the site are suffering legal issues as well.
Who plays DS games with an emulator? Doesn't that defeat the whole Touch-Screen and portability aspect of the hald-held nature of the DS?
A mouse is a perfect stylus replacement.
there are flash mods for the DS that allow you to use micro SD cards to load ROMs
Mr. Parrish kind of Perrished.... I don't see his post:-s
hey Kevin, wana stop with the double headers? they are getting a little annoying
"The numbers are quite staggering as a consumer, no less than horrifying to copyright owners"
If copyright owners reduced the price of there content and film studios made it easier to download films much like the music industry has done and removed that stupid HDCP crap from HD content execs wouldn't be crying in to their corn flakes every time they these sorts of numbers are published.
It would be interesting to see what would happen to piracy figures if were some companies with the balls to try out the above. Instead studios all stick together like an oil cartel to rip of the public for example how much more is to buy Blu-Ray movies instead of DVD's? 100% if not more? And in case you doubt there is collusion then why are films from different studio's all the same price when they came out?
Sorry for the rant but I just had to get that of my chest. Down with piracy and down with corporate rip-off's, there as bad as each other!
I still don't see why someone doesn't just set up a large torret site on some Carribian island where there is no international law.
I still don't see why someone doesn't just set up a large torret site on some Carribian island where there is no international law.
Does "Pirates of The Carribean" mean anything?
I for one would LOVE to actually do something about this, i guess i'll just have to wait until the rest of the worlds people are fed up and are ready to move to the streets with me... In mass, not the puny numbers we've seen already (In sweden, against the governments rape of the people, also known as IPRED) Fuhrer Reinfeldt and his jolly band of politicians kinda screwed us over on that one... Not his idea, i know, but he had the chance to stop it, he didn't = Ultimately his fault!
How would you know that "Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended" was clean unless you, yourself, downloaded it? And that Fifth Amendment stuff will not work with me.
I live in Vietnam. You can't buy real DVD's here, only knock off's coming out of China. I use mininova to get my hands on TV shows, movies and games that are impossible to get here. I'm not depriving anyone of money they would otherwise recieve.
If they want me to stop downloading their material for free, they should start selling their product here at a reasonable price.
@noahj : Does your boss know you're moving 100gb a month from work to home?
It seem like Parrish strike again!!!DHer
Bloodrayne 2...campy? You're giving it too much credit Kevin Parrish!
Try choking down the bonus footage. I don't think the maker's of that DVD have/had a grasp of the word "bonus" but they sure knew what "extra" was.
I should have added - the makers of that DVD probably put it up for download! lol It's probably not even really pirated, it's probably just the only way they can get more people to watch it after the initial DVD release! =) You know? Giving it away for free and all. (and yes I know this because I bought the DVD, I did not download it, it ranks amoung my worst DVD purchases)
Who plays DS games with an emulator? Doesn't that defeat the whole Touch-Screen and portability aspect of the hald-held nature of the DS?
Nobody is playing DS games on an emulator. The downloads exist for use on a modded DS.
Its funny how people/the insiders/the industry always point to the torrenters when they make references to piracy and how its so out of control on the net, but you never hear *anyone* mention or complain about the dozens of terabytes of material that sits for months!! on pay-for commercial binary usenet servers. I wonder if its because of someone's perceived notion that any type of business or paid-for access is somehow more elite or legal than freely distributed pirated materials (Surely they couldn't be using the services themselves?!).
Nothing against binaries at all (*eg*), but I'm tired of hearing the torrenters get all the blame from people seeking easy and ultimately empty legal settlements, people without the balls to point the finger at a mass of entrenched not-totally-innocent profiteers and/or people looking to get an easy shine on their egos careers or political points of view by going after the easy target(s).
Nobody is playing DS games on an emulator. The downloads exist for use on a modded DS.
Nope, there are people that play DS games on an emulator. There are multiple working DS emulators out there.
Its funny how people/the insiders/the industry always point to the torrenters when they make references to piracy and how its so out of control on the net, but you never hear *anyone* mention or complain about the dozens of terabytes of material that sits for months!! on pay-for commercial binary usenet servers.
Exactly. Sites like rapidshare and megaupload actually host illegal content. And I know many people that much prefer them over torrents.
I still don't see why someone doesn't just set up a large torret site on some Carribian island where there is no international law.
hey we have laws
How about Somilia?
How about moving to Somilia?
bandwidth caps. Yes, that the spirit! why not limit the times you can read a physical newspaper also? After 3 readings it starts to burn!
Wait, I got an even better Idea. Everybody MUST get all their news and information from a government/movie&music-company controlled media channel!
Bye, Bye democracy!
Hahaha, I'm so happy that we in holland do not have those '90 download limits on our broadband connections
.
Also, downloading is still legal...
Really, it is time the music and movie industry sees that the exorbitant prices that have been payed for their products so far are no longer their value. Movies and music have become so "normal" to everyone that you cannot expect to get this much money for it. And honestly... don't we think it is getting kinda insane?
Movies with budgets higher than some country's complete national income... And the managers having to choose between their 5 mercedes's...
The world has changed friends, even if you do not like to admit it. Illegal downloading will continue, maybe in a different form, but it will untill prices are accepted by the masses again...
Nobody is playing DS games on an emulator. The downloads exist for use on a modded DS.
No$gba makes a DS emulator, so yes there are people using emulators to play the games. I have met plenty of people in online chat that are either too cheap to buy a DS or are just plainly too cheap to buy a flash cart for their DS and want to play it on an emulator instead.
I haven't used mininova in maybe 2 years. If that site goes, there's many others out there anyway. But I think it would be a big blow to torrents since it is as popular or more popular than piratebay.
Also by the media talking about these sites, it exposes more people to different ways to pirate. I think they would be better off keeping their mouth shut because you know they aren't going to shut either of these sites down.