BREAKING NEWS: Mininova starts trial with content recognition

Mininova, the worlds most popular Bittorrent site, has announced that it will start a trial with content recognition. The trial is aimed at making Mininova’s copyright policy more effective. Already thousands of .torrents have dissapeared from the site.

Potential infringing video files referred to by torrents (e.g. files with titles that match titles of popular movies) are downloaded and checked by a third party content recognition system. If the system verifies that the downloaded content corresponds to infringing content, Mininova removes and blocks the torrent that refers to this file on Mininova.

By using content recognition, Mininova can automate the process of ‘notice and takedown’, making it far more effective. Currently, mininova operates a manual system of notice and takedown. Apart from the fact that this new automated system is more cost efficient for Mininova, it is also of greater use for the content industry because it is likely to be far more effective.

By introducing the new content recognition tool, Mininova distinguishes itself from similar services like The Pirate Bay who do not operate a notice and takedown system. By using an effective notice and takedown scheme,  Mininova can shield itself from liability for the conduct of its users on the basis of article 14 of the e-Commerce Directive. Therefore, the move on the part of Mininova is interesting, because Mininova is currently being sued by anti-piracy outfit BREIN for contributory copyright infringement. The lack of an effective notice and takedown schemes was one of the main reasons the administrators of the Pirate Bay were found guilty of aiding and abetting copyright infringement.

If the new content recognition trial is succesful it could be first step in creating  a much needed balance between the interests of Bittorrent providers and users on the one hand, and the content industry on the other hand. However, the system will probably also have its critics, because in a sense it is a filtering mechanism. The system does not provide a threat for the privacy of users because the system does not link the use of .torrent files to individual users.