Suprnova.org
Encyclopedia
Suprnova.org was a Slovenia
-based website which distributed torrents
for various music and video files, computer programs and games
. Started in late 2002 by Andrej Preston (known as Slonček, Slovenian for "little elephant") 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. On August 2, 2007, the domain name was donated to The Pirate Bay
, who relaunched the site on August 21, 2007.
s for long. It offered the ".torrent" meta files which would tell a BitTorrent client where it could find the BitTorrent tracker. 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.
Suprnova's popularity inspired copycat sites at Suprnova.com and Suprnova.net. These had the same layout as Suprnova.org but requested a usage fee while Suprnova.org did not.
For a brief time in 2004, and again in 2007 Suprnova partnered with an amateur internet-base radio station, Suprnova Radio.
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, Slonček 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. Other reasons for closure were posted by LivingWithTrolls at slyck.com
:
" along with Supermedo (Andrej's brother Marko, who took the name of the cartoon hero "Superted" in Slovenian), founded "Swarm Systems Inc" in order to avoid legal repercussions. The program was developed by Arvid Norberg the writer of libtorrent with help from libtorrent contributor Daniel Wallin on Slonček's request and hosted at exeem.com.
This was initially the subject of much debate and excitement on the internet as the eXeem beta testing forums were hosted at the Suprnova Forums (which consisted of over 250,000 users), but upon its 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 that many users joined 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.
In early 2005, Mininova
was created as an alternative to the dying Suprnova.
On August 2, 2007, TorrentFreak announced that Suprnova's former owner had donated the domain to The Pirate Bay, which had plans to relaunch the site. The new site was said to have the old design of Suprnova but possibly have some technical updates. Suprnova went online on August 21, 2007, at 18:03:27 GMT after the website displayed a countdown timer for 20 hours prior to its relaunch.
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
-based website which distributed torrents
BitTorrent tracker
A BitTorrent tracker is a server that assists in the communication between peers using the BitTorrent protocol. It is also, in the absence of extensions to the original protocol, the only major critical point, as clients are required to communicate with the tracker to initiate downloads...
for various music and video files, computer programs and games
Computer Games
"Computer Games" is a single by New Zealand group, Mi-Sex released in 1979 in Australia and New Zealand and in 1981 throughout Europe. It was the single that launched the band, and was hugely popular, particularly in Australia and New Zealand...
. Started in late 2002 by Andrej Preston (known as Slonček, Slovenian for "little elephant") 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
EXeem
eXeem was a peer-to-peer file sharing client using the BitTorrent protocol. eXeem was designed to replace the need for centralized trackers...
BitTorrent client software, deeming a fixed website too difficult to operate in the present legal climate. On August 2, 2007, the domain name was donated to The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website which hosts magnet links and .torrent files, which allow users to share electronic files, including multimedia, computer games and software via BitTorrent...
, who relaunched the site on August 21, 2007.
History 2002–2004
The site first ran from Slonček's (site founder) home. As it grew fast it moved to professional servers. Suprnova did not host any of the shared files, nor did it operate any BitTorrent trackerBitTorrent tracker
A BitTorrent tracker is a server that assists in the communication between peers using the BitTorrent protocol. It is also, in the absence of extensions to the original protocol, the only major critical point, as clients are required to communicate with the tracker to initiate downloads...
s for long. It offered the ".torrent" meta files which would tell a BitTorrent client where it could find the BitTorrent tracker. 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.
Suprnova's popularity inspired copycat sites at Suprnova.com and Suprnova.net. These had the same layout as Suprnova.org but requested a usage fee while Suprnova.org did not.
For a brief time in 2004, and again in 2007 Suprnova partnered with an amateur internet-base radio station, Suprnova Radio.
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, Slonček 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
EXeem
eXeem was a peer-to-peer file sharing client using the BitTorrent protocol. eXeem was designed to replace the need for centralized trackers...
project webpage. Other reasons for closure were posted by LivingWithTrolls at slyck.com
Slyck.com
Slyck.com is a website dedicated to file sharing. It offers news, reviews, and opinion, and has a user forum.-History of Slyck:Slyck began operations as Slyway.com in 2000, owned by Ray Hoffman. During this time, Slyck was an aggregate news site with some original content. It also had guides to the...
:
The host of the servers advised Slonček 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. Slonček decided to close nova (he didn't have much choice) and focus on Exeem.
eXeem spinoff
The admin and founder of Suprnova.org, "SlončekSloncek
Andrej Preston , also known under the pseudonym ' , is the founder of the former BitTorrent site Suprnova.org....
" along with Supermedo (Andrej's brother Marko, who took the name of the cartoon hero "Superted" in Slovenian), founded "Swarm Systems Inc" in order to avoid legal repercussions. The program was developed by Arvid Norberg the writer of libtorrent with help from libtorrent contributor Daniel Wallin on Slonček's request and hosted at exeem.com.
This was initially the subject of much debate and excitement on the internet as the eXeem beta testing forums were hosted at the Suprnova Forums (which consisted of over 250,000 users), but upon its release turned out to be a disappointment — eXeem contained the Cydoor
Cydoor
Cydoor Desktop Media is an Israeli adware company. Cydoor originally placed ads only in software programs such as Kazaa, but has now expanded into running ads on websites as an advertising network....
adware
Adware
Adware, or advertising-supported software, is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements to a computer. These advertisements can be in the form of a pop-up. They may also be in the user interface of the software or on a screen presented to the user during...
, like software such as Kazaa
Kazaa
Kazaa Media Desktop started as a peer-to-peer file sharing application using the FastTrack protocol licensed by Joltid Ltd. and operated as Kazaa by Sharman Networks...
, and escaping this adware was one of the reasons that many users joined 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.
Reincarnations
The original Suprnova.org was reincarnated on newnova.org using a slightly modified version of the Suprnova.org codebase. The site was short lived, however, and closed down in the face of legal threats four months after it opened. Another successor to Suprnova was Snarf-it.org, initially created by members of the Suprnova Forums community. Between September 2005 and May 2006, Suprnova.org reopened as a file sharing news site, but closed down, mostly due to a lack of popularity.In early 2005, Mininova
Mininova
Mininova is a website offering BitTorrent downloads. Mininova was once one of the largest sites offering torrents of copyrighted material, but in November 2009, following legal action in the Dutch courts, the site operators deleted all torrent files uploaded by regular users including torrents that...
was created as an alternative to the dying Suprnova.
On August 2, 2007, TorrentFreak announced that Suprnova's former owner had donated the domain to The Pirate Bay, which had plans to relaunch the site. The new site was said to have the old design of Suprnova but possibly have some technical updates. Suprnova went online on August 21, 2007, at 18:03:27 GMT after the website displayed a countdown timer for 20 hours prior to its relaunch.
See also
- BitTorrent
- CopyrightCopyrightCopyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
- Anti-copyrightAnti-copyrightAnti-copyright refers to the complete or partial opposition to prevalent copyright laws. Copyright is known as the owner's right for copies to be only made by the owner or with his/her authorization in form of a license....
- Demonoid
External links
- Official website
- NovastreamRadio
- 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
- The Pirate Bay About To Relaunch Suprnova.org, by TorrentFreak, August 2, 2007
- RadioSuprnova.org