Court considers Mininova unlawful

Today, Torrent site Mininova received a setback in a Dutch court. The judge ruled that Mininova’s role in allowing and profiting from copyright infringement is unlawful. The verdict further stated that the site needs to prevent the posting of links to files regarding which reasonable doubt exists whether rights holders have authorised this.

BREIN, who was the plaintiff in the case, is satisfied. BREIN provides Mininova with a list of titles of protected content. Mininova has been obliged to keep torrents of titles on that list away from their site, on pains of a fine of 1000 Euros per title up to a maximum of 5 million Euros.

BREIN’s director Tim Kuik: “This is a change that allows us to cut short the supply of illegal content.”

Mininova, meanwhile, considers to appeal the verdict. Co-founder Erik Dubbelboer comments on the Mininova blog: “We are obviously not satisfied with this ruling. The result of this ruling for Mininova is that we have to reevaluate our business operations.”