Scratch one Web site off that “alternatives to The Pirate Bay” list. Mininova has been ordered by a Dutch court to remove all links to copyrighted items from its servers, or face fines to the tune of €5 million. You get the feeling that the era of BitTorrent as we know it is about to end, don’t you?
Mininova, which is based in the Netherlands, has been charged with “contributory copyright infringement,” which means only that it contributed to copyright infringement, and not actually infringed on anything itself. I hope that makes sense out there.
Then there’s something about profiting from the whole venture, making some €1 million in ad sales in 2007 alone. That doesn’t look good in court, no sir.
The court said that up to 90 percent of the content on Mininova infringed copyright in some form or another.
I’m right now imagining a world where BitTorrent trackers like Mininova don’t exist, and I have to say: I’m not too concerned. Will I miss being able to get things really quickly? Yeah, for like a day, but then I’ll find a new hobby, like gardening or stamp collecting.