Dutch Court Orders Mininova to Remove Infringing Links

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 26, 2009 - 8:56am.

Utrecht, The Netherlands - A Dutch court has ordered BitTorrent tracker site Mininova to remove all links to copyrighted materials within three months, or else face fines of up to $7.1 million, TorrentFreak reported. The site was sued earlier this year by Dutch anti-piracy agency BREIN, which asked the court to compel Mininova to install a copyright filter.

The court found that Mininova's existing policy, where copyright holders could contact Mininova and request individual links be removed, was not sufficient.

It pointed to a group of moderators who patrol Mininova and remove links to adult content and viruses, saying the same protocol could be used to proactively remove copyrighted content links.

Mininova co-founder Erik Dubbelboer told TorrentFreak the site is considering an appeal of the civil court ruling.

Mininova has been considered a viable alternative to The Pirate Bay, which itself lost a copyright case earlier this year, and is in the process of being acquired by a firm that intends to make it a legitimate file-sharing service.

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/ref3h (TorrentFreak)

http://snipurl.com/ref53 (Wired.com)

http://www.mininova.org