It was just shortly after the death of SuprNova in 2004. Many BitTorrent users were distraught seeing their major source of content go down. It was, indeed, a dark day in the BitTorrent community. Many made an exodus to other sites like ThePirateBay and several other sites, trying to find the next big place in BitTorrent. It may not seem like the wisest decision to simply start a site up with a similar name given many factors including Holleywood setting their sites on a then up and coming protocol, but for a team of enthusiastic individuals, the timing could not have been better.

MiniNova quickly gained momentum, despite the odds. In early 2005, the site became popular enough to make an appearance on a site traffic tracking website Alexa. Late in 2005, the staff started a blog to keep the community informed of the ongoings of the site. By the end of that very month, the indexing site was getting about half a million unique visitors a day.

Just two months later, MiniNova was reporting that the site was then getting nearly 4 million views a day. If that wasn’t enough, by the time 2006 was close to being half way over, MiniNova reported that they got their 400 millionth torrent download.

At the beginning of 2007, MiniNova served their 1 billionth torrent download. A major milestone that was topped just 5 months later with their 2 billionth torrent download. What better way to top that off than with the 3 billionth torrent file downloaded just another 5 months later? Of course, now just 3 months later, yet another billion torrents downloaded; totaling 4 billion. It may be a growth rate enough to make McDonalds blush. If there is anything this proves, there really isn’t anything “mini” about MiniNova.

Of course, the growth had to overcome some major issues along the way. copyright infringement notices were issued to MiniNova almost since the beginning. Anti-piracy organizations tried, and failed to cripple the site with fake torrents. There was an increase in skepticism about the safety of using public BitTorrent sites and many started using “private” or closed of BitTorrent sites starting at around 2006. There were the server problems that probably showed MiniNova’s growing pains more than anything else throughout the years – an issue that is increasingly little more than a thing of the past these days as continual server upgrades keep downtime at bay.

Despite it all, the site has not only become a site that is growing at an increasing rate, but also a site that is expanding in functionality with the introduction of a search cloud two years ago and this years addition of the Content Distribution system among many other features.

“It’s nice to see that the download counter continues to speed up: after reaching 3 billion downloads back in November 2007,” Niek writes, “we expected to reach the current number only in March or April.”

Niek explains that the downloads that are counted are merely every time a user downloads a .torrent file, not necessarily when an actual file is completed.

“Some additional statistics for those who’re interested: our Alexa rank is currently 54,” he added, “and Google Analytics shows that more than 32 million unique visitors used Mininova last month. These people together generate more than 510 million pageviews per month, which causes quite some pressure on our servers. We do whatever we can to minimize downtime and add extra servers when necessary.”

Niek thanked the users and the moderator team for making the site what it is today. With continual growth and a seemingly unstoppable force, it may sound like a title that only goes to ThePirateBay, but MiniNova too shares that particular distinction. There is no telling where the site will go, but if the current course is any indication, it’s only going further into the cyber-stratosphere.

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4,000 documents arrived for ThePirateBay to go through. Peter Sunde says that the largest murder trial only had 1,500 court documents. He suggests that this is to prevent them from going through all of the documents more than anything else.

A casual observer may note that ThePirateBay is not the only BitTorrent website around. While this is most certainly true, there is something more to ThePirateBay than simply offering BitTorrent hash files, or .torrent files.

ThePirateBay has been around for many years. While other websites like SuprNova came and went, ThePirateBay has been a constant spot on the internet Holleywood seemingly couldn’t reach – that is, until the raid almost two years ago. While, for a very brief time, Holleywood seemingly scored a victory, ThePirateBay went back online a day later.

With legal threats met with ridicule and other pressure stopped dead in its tracks, ThePirateBay seems invincible to Holleywoods long reach that caused the demise of so many BitTorrent website before it. For some, it may be little more than the very symbol of resistance, rather then a place to download the latest movies, to the copyright industry and resilience of the digital age. It’s very likely that it appears this way for the copyright stakeholders who would rather see the demise of it. After all, wouldn’t it make for a big press release from the MPA (Motiona Picture Association) if they ever announce that they have shut down the iconic BitTorrent website once and for all, a website proving to be the thorn in Holleywoods side for so many years?

For Hollywood, a day like that won’t come soon enough, but if the report is anything to go by, not only is the prosecution not likely going to happen for years to come, but the mirrors for the website will keep the website going long after if the administrators are digitally locked away – an outcome the administrators say they doubt will ever even happen.

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