Mininova, Dutch Anti-Piracy Firm BREIN Face Off in Court

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 3, 2009 - 12:03pm.

Utrecht, the Netherlands - Mininova, a BitTorrent file-sharing hub that counts over 30 million monthly unique visitors, faced off in court today against Dutch anti-piracy organization BREIN, which accuses the site of copyright infringement, TorrentFreak reported.

BREIN argued that 92% of torrents on Mininova point to unauthorized copyrighted content, and that the company -- founded by five Dutch students -- rakes in millions off of advertising.

Mininova contended that it has done what is required by the law, in that it removes links to copyrighted content when asked by owners.

Further, the company said it is working with partners including the Motion Picture Association to implement an 'info-hash' filter that lets content owners block torrents themselves.

The three judges in the court in Utrecht heard testimony for roughly three hours. A verdict in the case is due on July 15.

"We have confidence in the outcome of the case and we believe Mininova will continue to exist," Mininova co-founder Erik Dubbelboer told TorrentFreak.

http://snipurl.com/jdrwa (DMW previous coverage)

http://snipurl.com/jdry3 (DMW previous coverage)

http://www.mininova.org