Slashdot Mirror


The Truth About Suprnova Shutdown

Romeo E. Cabrera writes "You might remember it was exactly a year ago when Suprnova, once the most popular BitTorrent search engine went dark. Today, Suprnova's admin Sloncek, reveals the truth and details, about the events occurred then."

30 of 365 comments (clear)

  1. RIP by crummynz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I spent far too much time on that site :(

    Safe to say that the torrent community has gone downhill since, I'd say.

    --
    ~ Crummy
    1. Re:RIP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      the problem with TBP is the large quantity of SHITTY torrents.

      too much homebrew in which the person has absolutely NO idea how to label files, tag things properly in the case of mp3s.

      honestly. atleast number the files, and stop including the damn thumbnails directory for god sakes.

  2. Unprovable intent? by mister_llah · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Incredibly lucky for the guy, really... but do you think it was because prosecutor couldn't figure out how to get the guy?

    --
    MoM++ - A Classic Expanded - [Master of Magic 1.5]
    http://mompp.sourceforge.net/
    1. Re:Unprovable intent? by DumbWhiteGuy777 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I doubt it. If they wanted him bad enough, I'm sure they could get something.

    2. Re:Unprovable intent? by Lord+Kano · · Score: 2, Insightful

      do you think it was because prosecutor couldn't figure out how to get the guy?

      Maybe it's just me, but I always thought that prosecutors were supposed to prosecute people who break the law and not try to find ways to "get people".

      I know first hand how cops can be that petty, but thankfully I've never encountered a prosecutor who was that much of an asshole.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
  3. Re:Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    You know... /. is older than Digg, so you should just go to dig and stay out of here.

  4. welp by theheff · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Good to know that nothing really happenned to the guy. Sometimes us leechers forget that behind every torrent/p2p website, there's still good people working behind the scenes who made it all possible... sadly, they are usually the ones who get all the blame.

  5. Well... by Sinryc · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'll be honest. I would have done the same thing as him. I mean really, Everything turned out okay for him in the end anyway. He didn't serve any jail time, and he got all of his stuff back. Hell, hes probabbly glad about the site bein' kaputs. All these people that will say that he should have fought, etc... Well, they need to understand this guy has a real life as well, and not just one that encompases a website that gives torrent files to materials in wich you didn't pay for.

    --
    Yay, I have a sig.
  6. Re:Slyck Disagrees with Sloncek by mattwarden · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Um, did you even RTFA you linked to? I would hardly characterize Slyck's position as disagreement. They include quotes from Sloncek that clear up confusion caused by apparent (but not actual) inconsistencies.

  7. Re:So, to sum it up by Motherfucking+Shit · · Score: 4, Insightful
    So, summarizing the article:

    Nothing happened
    Case dropped
    Suprnova still gone
    You have an interesting definition of "nothing happened." To me, it sounded more like:

    Police raid ISP
    Police confiscate servers
    Police visit Suprnova operator at home
    Police seize two computers and various media from Suprnova operator
    Suprnova spends a few months in limbo
    Suprnova stresses out over mail from prosecutor
    Case dropped
    Suprnova still gone

    I'd be interested in a translation of the letter that he posted on the site. Specifically, I'm interested in knowing why exactly the prosecutors decided not to pursue the case.
    --
    "BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
  8. Re:So, to sum it up by NitsujTPU · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I concur with other posters on this one.

    Police raiding your home, seizing your property, and dragging you through legal proceedings, when you've done nothing wrong sounds pretty bad to me.

  9. Re:One of the most idiotic stories on /. to date by shreevatsa · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Huh? The article was written by "Suprnova's admin Sloncek". He is the one who came close to being prosecuted, his computers were confiscated, etc. He is the only one who can give an account of the story, and if he choses to say blah blah and blah blah, there is nothing anyone else can do to fill in those details.
    Your remarks would make sense if an original news item was dumbed down for the "general public".
    If the guy who got the letter from the prosecutor does not wish to quote verbatim from it, or he thinks it is not relevant, why question it? It's probably not relevant anyway, just some law numbers and dates.
    He does provide the original letter (in Slovenian), so read it yourself for the gory details. Or, scroll down for helpful translations below.

  10. Re:So, to sum it up by slavemowgli · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Without knowing the details of Slovenian copyright law, I'd guess that it was dropped because he didn't actually do anything wrong. No copyrighted data went through the suprnova servers, and copyright infringement is not a criminal offense in most countries, so it's likely that contributing to it is not illegal at all, either (it typically only is for criminal activities).

    In other words, it's the same reason why ThePirateBay still operates - only that the latter is hosted in Sweden, where it's probably (I assume!) less easy for the music/movie industry to get the police to investigate things when there is no evidence of an actual crime being committed.

    --
    quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
  11. like sandtrout by NuShrike · · Score: 2, Insightful

    When you kill the sandworm, you do not really kill it, but spread its sandtrout to form new sandworms everywhere.

  12. Re:When your family's talking about torrents... by sqrt(2) · · Score: 2, Insightful

    With napster, there was a central target. With BitTorrent, they would have to get each individual tracker. And many are hosted in countries with laws that allow the sites to exist legally. American laws don't have much weight in Sweden

    --
    If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
  13. Re:Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Then go to Digg and don't come back to Slashdot. The quality of stories at Digg is atrocious at best and the comments are even worse. Digg is the laughing stock of the tech community because it has the lowest quality content imaginable and one of the dumbest communities ever established. Every second story on Digg is a link to some random 12 year olds blog, a simple CSS/AJAX tutorial or a combination of both. The programming behind Digg is also utterly pathetic. Comments go missing, stories go missing, it's easy to manipulate how many Diggs a story gets, you can insert all sorts of html and JavaScript into a comment to fuck things up etc.

    Your signature, which is currently "--lol pwned", makes it perfectly clear that you don't belong anywhere near an intelligent conversation. Go back to Digg retard.

  14. Re:So, to sum it up by ZoneGray · · Score: 4, Insightful

    More likely the prosecutor looked at the case, and figured he shouldn't put much effort into prosecuting a countryman for the benefit of American movie studios.

  15. no, no, and no,.. by way2trivial · · Score: 4, Insightful

    vcrs (famous betamax decision) helped people carry out an illegal act.. but it was legal.
    just providing the means does NOT equate into illegal actions.

    napster got in trouble because they kept the master file list on their own servers- and then couldn't filter out content the riaa & others wanted blocked.

    Laws concerning morality never fit in with the 'average' views of the citizenry--

    --
    every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
    1. Re:no, no, and no,.. by Tim+C · · Score: 2, Insightful

      vcrs (famous betamax decision) helped people carry out an illegal act.. but it was legal.
      just providing the means does NOT equate into illegal actions.


      Conversely, just because the Betamax case went our way, doesn't mean that any other instance under consideration would.

    2. Re:no, no, and no,.. by cHiphead · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Legal precedent is the deciding factor in most cases.

      --

      This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
  16. Re:Darkness by MikeCapone · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So from RTFA I got that they basically intimidated him. No legal charges, just a damocles sword hanging over his head for a while without any details as to why that was exactly.

  17. sites come and go by beast6228 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Suprnova may have been popular at the time, but like all websites, they come and go. There is always someone else to take their place. Remember isonews.com when it was taken down by the FBI years ago? Hey guess what? Their back up and running with a new website theisonews.com

    Now we have sites like thepiratebay.org which is probably one of the best torrent sites on the internet. Heck, they even tout the lawyers and post the threating legal letters on their website for everyone to read http://thepiratebay.org/legal.php
    Quite hilarious if you ask me.
    Of course you have other torrent sites as well, like torrentspy.com which is another popular site.

    sites come and go, they come and go....

    --
    ~Later~
  18. Re:So, to sum it up by drgonzo59 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Know anyone who owns an island or a small country and is willing to donate the domain name? What would MPAA or RIAA do? They can't invade a country.

    In the case of supernova they probably bribed the police into doing all this scaring tactics. As far as I know the police in Eastern Europe is not really interested in piracy and computer fraud, they got other things to worry about and besides, some countries don't even have good laws concerning computers and internet BUT for a large enough bribe the police in those countries will arrest and scare anyone regardless of the crime.

  19. Re:So, to sum it up by BobTheLawyer · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I've a solution to those IP tracking issues: how about not downloading illegal copies of music and videos?

  20. Re:So, to sum it up by JWSmythe · · Score: 2, Insightful


    > He just offered the people knowledge how to break copyright, he didn't break it himself.
    > It's the same with gun companies, they don't shoot people, they sell you a weapon to do it.


    This is a great example.

    BT and other P2P programs do have practical uses. I have two that I use.

    Guns do have practical uses. I also have two of these.

    So, I have a gun. It doesn't mean that I plan to kill someone. Maybe I want to go hunting. Maybe I want to be able to defend my home and family. Maybe I just like to have a piece of metal worth a few hundred dollars as an investment (they are a great one). Is the manufacturer or store responsible if someone uses it to commit a crime? No. Just like they aren't responsible if someone breaks into my house and I have to shoot them.

    Manufacturers of kitchen knives are selling a tool for a purpose. Plenty of people are killed every year with knives, but I've never heard of a knife manufacturer being dragged into court over it.

    --
    Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
  21. Re:From the article... by darkmeridian · · Score: 3, Insightful
    This has been a huge pressure on me and I think it left some permanent marks on me. I hope none of you will ever have to go through something like this.


    I hope I can remember not to facilitate piracy on a massive scale so something like this doesn't happen to me!

    And RIAA's job here is done.
    --
    A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
  22. Re:Slashdot by PunkOfLinux · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Admittedly, the quality of comments on digg is rather poor at times.
    On the other hand, you can't forget that the stories on digg's front page can't be that god-awful for someone to want them to show up on the first page you see.

  23. Re:Darkness by pnewhook · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yup, that good old American justice system-whoever tells the most convincing lies gets off

    --
    Tesla was a genius. Edison however was a overrated hack who liked to torture puppies.
  24. Re:So, to sum it up by pegr · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If you're in the states, you'd better move there too. Otherwise, the NSA might just be monitoring all your communications with your host. King George himself authorized it.
     
    I call shenanigans. Have you read "The Puzzle Palace"? They have been doing this for decades. Ole George had nothing to do with it (apart from allowing it to happen, just like the last 10 presidents...).

  25. Re:Is Suprnova... up again by crimson30 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Mininova's good, but bitenova is better.