Suprnova.org
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Suprnova.org was a Slovenian based website which distributed torrents for various music and video files, computer programs and games. Many of these torrents could potentially have been used for copyright infringement. Started in late 2002 and for a while considered the most popular BitTorrent search engine, Suprnova.org closed in late 2004 after legal threats. The site operators supported the development of the eXeem BitTorrent client software, deeming a fixed website too difficult to operate in the present legal climate. The first eXeem client versions contained Cydoor adware. The creators removed the adware due to complaints, but it was not enough to recover the program's tarnished reputation.
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[edit] Overview
Suprnova did not host any of the shared files, nor did it operate any BitTorrent trackers for long. It offered the ".torrent" meta files which would tell a BitTorrent client where it could find the BitTorrent tracker. These torrent files that point to copyright protected works are illegal in several countries. The client can then go to the tracker to find peers from which the file can be obtained. Suprnova would connect to the tracker periodically to obtain statistics for display on its web pages, so visitors could determine how popular a file was, and how likely it was that they could obtain a complete copy of it. The two important statistics are "seeds" and "peers". "Peers" is the number of participants currently uploading and downloading the file. "Seeds" is the number of participants who have the complete file available for download. The number of seeds is important, as if there are no seeds left or the last seed leaves the network, all other participants are most likely unable to finish the file.
As well as the torrent files themselves, there was a set of forums for visitors, where people talked about various subjects, and requested different files that they'd like to see people upload. This resulted in a greater sense of community spirit than on the self-contained networks such as FastTrack and Gnutella.
Suprnova.org had a problem with two similarly named scam sites, Suprnova.com and Suprnova.net. The two sites had the same layout as Suprnova.org but requested a usage fee while Suprnova.org did not.
For a brief time in 2004, SuprNova was partnered with an amateur internet-base radio station, SuprNova Radio.[1]
[edit] Legal action and closure
As of late November 2004 an empty-shell French company, RetSpan, has been seeking legal action against SuprNova.[1]
On December 19, 2004, a message was displayed on Suprnova's front page stating it had officially closed down. Some speculated it was due to its poor server and constant downtime, but others noted that Suprnova had been receiving legal warnings. Later, Sloncek revealed on Suprnova's IRC channel that he and the other administrators were not willing to continue fighting the legal warnings which they had received. The Suprnova page reappeared encouraging visitors to visit the eXeem project webpage.
The actual reasons for closure were posted by LivingWithTrolls at slyck.com in this post [2] with the most important points being #3 & #4.
3. The host of the servers advised sloncek that he should close nova and live to fight another day with exeem, either that or face the servers being withdrawn by said host and it closing anyway. The host was not going to allow any linking to his other affairs (several other P2P associations) which would cause more casualties.
4. Sloncek decided to close nova (he didn't have much choice) and focus on exeem.
[edit] eXeem
The admin and founder of Suprnova.org, "Slonček" ("little elephant", in Slovenian, real name Andrej Preston) along with his brother Marko who's nick is "suprmedo" ("supr tiny bear" in Slovenian) financed the development of eXeem and set up an offshore company "swarm systems" in order to avoid legal repercussions. The program was developed by Arvid Norberg the writer of libtorrent with help from libtorrent contributor Daniel Wallin [3] on Slonček's request and hosted at exeem.com [4]
This was initially the subject of much debate and excitement on the internet as the eXeem beta testing forums were hosted at the 250,000 users + Suprnova Forum now the WiredFire Forums [5], but upon the release turned out to be a disappointment - eXeem contained the Cydoor adware, like software such as Kazaa, and escaping this adware was one of the reasons for many's use of Suprnova in the first place. A hacked version of the program, eXeem Lite, was released afterward, and upon realising the effect of this program, the adware was eventually removed from eXeem. This was not enough to save the program's tarnished reputation, and the eXeem network shut down at the end of 2005.
[edit] Suprnova.org reincarnations
The original Suprnova.org has been reincarnated on newnova.org using the slightly modified codebase of Suprnova.org, running on a new domain. The site was however short lived and closed down in the face of lawsuit threats 4 months after it opened.
The most legitimate successor is Snarf-it.org initially created by the Suprnova Forums community [6]
Between September 2005 and May 2006, Suprnova.org reopened as a file sharing news site, but closed down again mostly because of a lack of popularity. The domain is currently owned by a domain reseller and is used as an ad portal.
Since the beginning of 2005, Mininova[7] was created as Alternative to the dying Suprnova. Today Mininova claims to be the biggest BitTorrent related Search-Engine and Directory.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Official website (Down)
- SuprNova.org: The Story of a Legend, by Michael Ingram, May 7, 2006
- Suprnova.org: Two Years Since the Shutdown, by Torrentfreak, December 19, 2006
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| Companies | BitTorrent, Inc. |
| Prominent individuals | Bram Cohen • Ashwin Navin • Ludvig Strigeus |
| Technology | Tracker • Client • Super-seeding • Peer exchange • Broadcatching (BT RSS List) |
| Prominent clients (category) | Official BitTorrent Client • ABC • Azureus • BitComet • BitTornado • KTorrent • Transmission • µTorrent • Halite |
| Prominent sites (category) | LokiTorrent • Suprnova.org • The Pirate Bay • AnimeSuki • Demonoid • Mininova • isoHunt • TorrentSpy • Empornium • UKNova |
