Dutch court guts Mininova

Robert Hallock 26 Aug, 2009 at 12:30pm ET Article published in Tech

With The Pirate Bay on the skids, the torrentverse has taken another blow as a Dutch court orders Mininova to remove all copyrighted works.

The Utrecht District Court has ordered Mininova to promptly remove torrents to all copyrighted works under threat of millions in fines. The decision comes as the conclusion to a case filed by Stichting BREIN, the Dutch equivalent of the RIAA.

In an emailed response to Wired inquiries, Mininova expressed surprise, given that the site has a tradition of complying with takedown notices from around the world.

“We are obviously not satisfied with this ruling. The result of this ruling for Mininova is that we have to reevaluate our business operations. At this time, we cannot determine what this will actually entail or imply. We will have to examine the verdict thoroughly first. We are considering to appeal this judgment,” said Mininova co-founder Erik Dubbelboer.

Stichting BREIN’s victory over Mininova comes less than a month after a Dutch court ordered The Pirate Bay to block access to the site from within the Netherlands. Might the Netherlands be the new home to any and all European copyright lawsuits?

Comments

26 Aug 2009 ~ 12:37pm Snarkasm Damnit, Holland, you're really killing my boner here.
26 Aug 2009 ~ 12:41pm MAGIC

Snarkasm wrote:

Damnit, Holland, you're really killing my boner here.

Seriously, what a buzz kill. Where am i supposed to get my w4rez now!?1!
26 Aug 2009 ~ 2:30pm UPSLynx ISOhunt pwned, I moved to TPB. TPB owned, I moved to Mininova. Mininova pwned... ???
26 Aug 2009 ~ 2:34pm GnomeWizardd exactly i am at a loss
26 Aug 2009 ~ 2:41pm Thrax Gosh, I even gave you guys the answer to your quest for legal content in news I posted yesterday.
26 Aug 2009 ~ 2:44pm Snarkasm When the man has a point, the man has a point. Come on guys, read up.
26 Aug 2009 ~ 2:51pm UPSLynx Truth, I didn't read up.

But I worked all day and was on the road. That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it.
26 Aug 2009 ~ 2:55pm GnomeWizardd I was just lazy
26 Aug 2009 ~ 3:21pm Obsidian Looks like Demonoid is about to get a lot of new users.
26 Aug 2009 ~ 3:49pm Cliff_Forster

Obsidian wrote:

Looks like Demonoid is about to get a lot of new users.

Interesting, it says new registrations are closed.
26 Aug 2009 ~ 4:01pm Obsidian New registrations are always closed. You need to get a code from someone that already has an account.
26 Aug 2009 ~ 4:02pm MrTRiot This is kind of funny to me. They go for all the fully public trackers on the bottom of the ladder. Another 2nd rate tracker down the tube.....
26 Aug 2009 ~ 4:42pm Basil Little of topic but if any icrontic user needs a demonoid invite code PM me and I'll see what I can do (think I have one).

Edit, Prolly should say anyone but lynx given his history with tracker sites

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26 Aug 2009 ~ 4:53pm Obsidian I think they allow you to generate up to five per day. I haven't tried it in a while though.
26 Aug 2009 ~ 5:01pm Basil

Obsidian wrote:

I think they allow you to generate up to five per day. I haven't tried it in a while though.

Never realized I could get any invite codes until I checked today and had one showing up on my control panel.
IIRC the last time I logged in it was only certain members who could invite new peeps (was yonks ago though).
27 Aug 2009 ~ 10:39am GooD I hope mininova won't close, its one of the rare torrent site left that has a good User Interface, and comments from user are the normality, not the exception like on most other sites =/

I know each time one will go down another will go up, but that sucks in the meantime :P