the stats from mininova only show how many times the torrent file was downloaded on mininova. it does not show any stats for any completed downloads of the video.

even the stats for seed and leech are not up-to-date, either because their system doesn’t update them for 24 hours at a time, or because the tracker the torrent is registered with doesn’t allow scraping and after some time is removed because their system considers it to be dead.

either way, it’s not at all a fair sample of how many times the video file has been downloaded completely. the stats on mininova have nothing to do with that info.

i’ve had some of my own torrent files removed by mininova mods for unfounded and erroneous complaints, only to have to wait for hours for a mod on irc or a day or two to get in touch with one in the forumst o find out what the problem is and then submit the torrent again – and explaining that my files are not against their rules asking to be unbanned from their upload page.

i use trackers that do allow scraping by mininova. one file i’ve had to submit more than once has actually been completed more than 21, 000 times although mininova only shows that from their website the torrent file has been downloaded only 15,000 times – in its current third or fourth submission. before that it (the torrent file) had been grabbed several thousand times from mininova.

plus, mine – as well as the majority of torrents – are posted on other listing sites and message boards.

the only way i know how to see exactly how many times a file has been downloaded is by putting the torrent into the torrentspy application and checking the stats there. but again, if the tracker doesn’t allow scraping it might not register in torrentspy.

so to have a fair, representative sample one needs to at least use an application that does show how many completes the torrent registered. merely knowing how many times a torrent file is grabbed from a particular website doesn’t represent anything other than that.

companies such as BigChampagne that do monitor torrent traffic have a more accurate and representative “sample” of what’s happening. perhaps they would show that Transformers and Heroes were actually downloaded ten times more often than the stats provided by mininova.

“They confiscated the digital camera as evidence and charged Sejas, a Marymount University sophomore and Annandale resident, with a crime: illegally recording a motion picture.”

Ah yes, I had forgotten about that incident.

If I said what I really felt towards these officers, this post would be deleted.