Mininova deletes all illegal torrents, goes legal

It's over for Mininova
It's over for Mininova

Mininova has made the shock decision today to go legit, deleting all infringing torrents from its index marks, leaving only those which populate its content distribution service.

The BitTorrent site which popped up five years ago, and has been a massive hit with the download crowd, has decided to rid itself of all illegal torrents, after the site lost a legal dispute with Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN.

Content removed

The ruling meant that while Mininova is not responsible for any copyright infringements, it had to remove all torrents linking to copyrighted material within three months, or face a whacking great penalty of up to 5 million euros for linking to the stuff.

Not wanting to pay such a hefty fine, Mininova has rid itself of any links to copyrighted content.

Speaking to TorrentFreak about the news, Mininova co-founder Niek said: "It's very unfortunate that we're forced to take this action, but we saw no other option."

As Mininova was born out of the hole left by Suprnova back in 2004, it's inevitable that another site will take its place soon.

However, with Peter Mandelson in the UK looking to banish all pirated material from the internet, the web seems to be tightening for those looking to get their media for free online.

Read more about the site's demise on its own blog.

Via TorrentFreak

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.

Latest in Computing Security
Dark Web monitoring
How users benefit from Dark Web monitoring
The X logo next to a silhouette of Elon Musk
Who was really behind the massive X cyberattack? Here’s what experts say about Elon Musk’s claims
A person holding a phone looking at a scam text with warning signs around
A massive SMS toll fee scam is sweeping the US – here’s how to stay safe, according to the FBI
View on National Assembly building in Paris, France, with French and European flags flying.
France rejects controversial encryption backdoor provision
ensure data security for your business
The complete data protection system for your business
ignal messaging application President Meredith Whittaker poses for a photograph before an interview at the Europe's largest tech conference, the Web Summit, in Lisbon on November 4, 2022.
"We will not walk back" – Signal would rather leave the UK and Sweden than remove encryption protections
Latest in News
EA Sports F1 25 promotional image featuring drivers Oscar Piastri, Carlos Sainz and Oliver Bearman.
F1 25 has been officially announced, with this year's entry marking a return for Braking Point and a 'significant overhaul' for My Team mode
Garmin clippd integration
Garmin's golf watches just got a big software integration upgrade to help you improve your game
Robert Downey Jr reveals himself as Doctor Doom to a delighted crowd at San Diego Comic-Con 2024
Marvel is currently making a major announcement about Avengers: Doomsday's cast on YouTube, and I think it's going to be a long-winded reveal
Samsung QN90F on yellow background
Samsung announces US prices for its 2025 mini-LED TV lineup, and it’s good and bad news
Nintendo Switch Lite
Forget the Nintendo Switch 2, the original Switch is getting one last hurrah in a surprise Nintendo Direct tomorrow
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge on display the January 22, 2025 Galaxy Unpacked event.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge colors seemingly revealed in new video, and there’s another sign of an imminent launch