I could just image MediaDefender or MediaSentry or anyother evil media tracking company uloading illegal conent to mininova’s CD system and suing them.

Someone should sue those bastads into the ground. They’re more illegal than torrent users by hacking peoples pcs (MediaSentry…). A good $1.77 trillion dollar fine (like comcast should get: http://digg.com/tech_news/Comcast_could_receive_1_77_Trillion_fine ) should sort them out :)

And everyone who likes ambient music, check out the Musictrade label’s stuff on Mininova’s Content Distribution. I’m not associated with them in any way but they put out great stuff.

Maybe; but while other torrent sites host more undifferentiated open vs. closed material, mininova is (I think) on the right track.
By not censoring the content, but rather promoting legal content, they are setting a large and excellent precedent for BitTorrent and p2p in general; they actually move the “legal use” from theory into application; instead of “our site MIGHT be indexing something (or somethings) that is legal to share”, Mininova is saying “Our site is indexing what our users want, but we as a site are emphasizing what IS legal to share.”

This is a whole different legal ground, and honestly I think it ratchets the site up from theoretically-legal-but-realistically-mostly-just-used-for -illegal-purposes, all the way up to theoretically-legal-but-realistically-acts-as-much-as -a-legal-means-of-open-source-content-distribution-
as-for-illegal-content-distribution.
And believe you me boys and girls, those legal consequences are much more valuable than “Thank the uploader” (although, that is a good /neat idea!).

Speaking of which, I have an idea for the evolution of bands: they should release a (say) six-song, DRM-free EP onto the “Featured” section of all the torrent sites, and make it totally legal for everyone to download the EP. Then, when they release a full length album, they can request the torrent sites not place it into the Featured section [it'll get online, but this is more of a good faith dialogue b/w the admins and the artists].
That will guarantee promotion, give the fans a more-than-fair, good sized, fully legal taste of the music, establish good (well, at least better:) relations between the admins and the artists, establish _very_ good relations between the _fans_ and the artists, and I strongly believe would sell MUCH more albums.

I mean, think about it.
Buying albums now is like paying money to Satan because you love the new album, and you’re hoping that at least a small, tiny fraction of your money makes its way to the artist.
Stealing albums now is like spitting in the face of the artist who is producing the music you like.
But downloading the FULLY-LEGAL EP, whether you buy the album or not [preferably, buying the album if you like the EP] is like saying “Torrents, thank you and I will fight to protect you including because you are so legal; Artist, thank you for making great music and being cool with releasing the EP for free; Satan, kiss off !”:)

Okay, well, maybe all except that last part, but that too will come with time (maybe the devil would then at least switch his focus from attacking the fully legal BitTorrent to something more constructive, like producing even MORE great music that people like so much they want to pay for it – “Moo-hoo-ha-ha-ha”!

That’s my two cents. Peace.

What movies are worth downloading? I keep my list at http://moviestoget.blogspot.com