Mininova removes illegal torrents

Mininova's looking a little thin today. It's just removed every illegal torrent in its index - leaving just the squeeky clean content distribution service ones put there by artists themselves.

It's not down to some sudden pang of guilt but a ruling in a Dutch court where the anti-piracy chaps, BREIN, have been pursuing the swarthy peg legs for copyright infringement.

Thankfully for Mininova's skins, the court ruled it wasn't liable for its members' dastardly deeds, but did need to start doing a little policng of what members are posting.

After unsuccessfully attempting automatic content filters, Mininova's now taken the drastic step of pulling virtually all its content, thus avoiding a hefty 5 million Euro fine.

It's written on its blog: 'Unfortunately the court ruling leaves us no other option than to take our platform offline, except for the Content Distribution service. According to the verdict we have to prevent uploads of torrents to Mininova that refer to certain titles or to similar-looking titles.' Although it does add: 'We are still considering an appeal at this moment.'

It's another one in the eye for pirate kind but unlikely to make a dent in illegal file sharing. Centralised torrent sites are already looking old school after Pirate Bay. The Bittotent pirates will sail on, we think.