Broadband News

The world's most popular BitTorrent site is blocking off content that infringes copyright ahead of its forthcoming court appearance. MiniNova, which reached the “eight billion downloads” milestone last month, is testing a third party filtering system that stops users getting their hands on hit TV shows and films. Effectively, fans of programmes like Heroes and Prison Break are being told to get lost (with a small "L" – of course, Lost is banned too).

MiniNova's new protocols make it easier for copyright holders to identify and ban torrents right from the point when a user uploads a "possibly infringing" file. The user is then greeted with the following message: "Your torrent has been uploaded successfully. It will not appear immediately on the site, as the content will be downloaded first by a third party to check for infringing content. If the content is found to be non-infringing, the torrent will be posted on the site right away."

The most prolific release groups, such as EZTV, are now seeing the majority of their torrents barred from the site. However, one of EZTV’s admin staff, NovaKing, says he holds no ill will towards MiniNova. "It is wiser for them to push the initiative and show the content distributors that they are not the bad guys instead of being forced by a judge to more than likely do the same thing in their upcoming court case," he told TorrentFreak.

The rights holders chose the new filtering system themselves and say it’ll make it easier for them to get BitTorrent files removed than the usual notice and takedown method. Even if it’s only a test on a limited number of torrents, implementing it marks a significant change in MiniNova’s policy – they’d previously argued the DMCA takedown procedure was good enough. Its owners are currently approaching things differently compared to their Pirate Bay equivalents – who are still trying working on ways to rebel from jail, including recently calling for a DO$ (denial of dollars) attack on the record and movie companies that put them in the dock.

MiniNova itself is being taken to court by Dutch copyright trade group BREIN, which reportedly wants torrent filtering imposed permanently. Mininova's co-founder Niek van der Maas is claiming that the new filtering system being tested is an extension of the website's existing copyright policy. The test is scheduled to last twelve weeks.

[ TorrentFreak ]