In a big move against P2P Sharing, The Dutch government, a few days ago literally shut down one of the leading peer to peer file sharing sites. Mininova has been a beacon for all the torrent users once Suprnova.org ended in 2004 due to legality issues.
Unlike Mininova, Piratebay is maintaining a strong presence, despite threats to forcibly shut it down. Mininova used to have more than 5 million users daily, but now due to availabilty of only legal stuff, this number is sure to plummet.
In the official blog of mininova, (http://blog.mininova.org/articles/2009/11/26/mininova-limits-its-activities-to-content-distribution-service/)
I clearly saw how much the site meant to people from all around the globe.
Many are confident that a new file sharing site, is bound to rise out of the ashes of mininova.
Bitenova, sharereactor and many other sites are now gaining importance.
Unable to persecute the downloaders from all over the world, the coursts have focused their
attention of shutting down the websites themselves.This recent
bid to shut down P2P sharing sites, seems to be fueled by the crashing down of sales of music
albums, movies, software and what not. However the courts fail to realize that, P2P network is
almost impossible to shut down, if one is closed down, two of them spring up. Many people I
know are literally devastated by this. This is the the worst thing that happened after there was
a rumor that pirate bay was becoming paid.
When software companies stop asking for $10,000 for what might be excellent code in a packaged box and got "reasonable" with 100% downloaded products; when music and movie companies start streaming new content directly to TVs and computers for a reasonable fee and make the media available 24/7; when ALL global TV shows are available via a large database for anyone to watch at anytime and anywhere . . . then maybe - just maybe P2P will cease to exist.
The costs, however good the software might be, have to be within a range... come on I wouldn't definitely like to pay 700$ for any software products, though they are really good. Give them for 70$, I'll buy one and gift two to my friends.
It's time the RIAA loosens up, and allows live and low streaming of movies or songs. The packaged media industry is dying. We don't want for free, but for a more reasonable cost.
I have been using Mininova for the past many years, It is one of the best ones out there. Free of viruses, and quality is always maintained.
So I bid thee Farewell Mininova. May your ideals be reborn as several other good sharing sites.
Statistics as of 24 November 2009:
- Total torrents in database: 1,316,806
- Total torrent downloads: 10,062,351,935
Statistics as of 26 November 2009:
- Total torrents in database: 8,859
- Total torrent downloads: Sure to go down to single digits.
