Acording to Mininova's blog post they are now removing all copyrighted content that it does not have official agreements for. Users now have to apply for what is called a Content Distribution account. This move comes months after the restructing/court battles/ownership switches at the The Pirate Bay. Has the entertainment industry and industry's a like finally cracked down on pirated material?

Mininova, which was founded in 2005 in the Netherlands by five students, made the concession as the result of a court case brought forward by BREIN, a Dutch anti-piracy group. In June, a judge ruled that Mininova was not directly responsible for copyright infringement but ordered the website to remove links to such torrents within three months or face a fine of up to 5 million euros.

The site's founders are considering appealing the ruling, but in the meantime are allowing only uploads from approved partners. "It's very unfortunate that we're forced to take this action, but we saw no other option," co-founder Niek van der Maas told the TorrentFreak website. Mininova has operated as a legitimate business and according to financial records filed in the Netherlands, it pulled in revenue of more than one million euros in 2007. The site's founders said much of that revenue came from advertising on the site, and affiliate partnerships.

The rule of the internet is when one shuts down another starts up. The question is what will be the next big thing?