Down but not out. Those would be the words that can be used to describe the staff at Mininova right now. Although the site still survives, a Dutch court ruled in August that Mininova must comply with the demand to remove all content that may be copyrighted work. Today is the day that Mininova fully complied with that order. With much of its content gone, Mininova seems like a shadow of its former self.

Or is it?

The ruling came out on August 26, 2009. It's hardly a surprise that Mininova waited until the last possible minute to comply. And why not? With an appeal being considered, just about anything can happen in a short period of time. But unfortunately, the appeal is still in the formulation stages, as Mininova's blog says, "We are still considering an appeal at this moment."

Trying to filter content (or torrents in this case) that may be infringing has long known to be a double edged sword. The techies will tell you that it's technologically very difficult, if not impossible; the entertainment industry will tell you it's a piece of cake. Somewhere in between is a solution: just take it all down. And that's just about what Mininova did.

Not looking to tinker around with time consuming and wasteful filtering technology, Mininova has simply eliminated everything but its Content Distribution system. Yes, most of Mininova's indexed torrents are gone, but perhaps only the best has stayed behind.

Since its launch in 2007, Mininova's Content Distribution (CD) system has proven wildly successful. Thousands of participants, from popular Dutch artists like "Silence is Sexy" to tinkering college chimps with a video-recorder, Mininova's CD system has been an avenue for just about anyone to distribute work. And distributing via Mininova's CD is no joke. Mininova.org is one of the largest websites online - not just one of the largest BitTorrent websites. Many participants agree that distributing work on Mininova's CD is an excellent way to build an audience.

So is Mininova down for the count? Probably not. Neik van der Maas & company are a smart bunch, and have diversified Mininova's appeal over the last few years. While BitTorrent websites have come and gone, Mininova has stood the test of time. BREIN, unlike the situation in Sweden, is not out for blood, and seems perfectly content with Mininova continuing to exist in its current state. Will we see a very different Mininova from here on? Probably.

But that’s OK. With a tremendous amount of traffic still coming to the site, Mininova has successfully created a vibrant community that isn’t going to lose sleep over this minor setback. Although Mininova’s torrent index was once its greatest asset, we think that Mininova has plenty of life left in it, and will finish its transition into a different, but no less critical, BitTorrent and file-sharing website.

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