The move follows a ruling in a Netherlands district court three months ago ordering the firm to remove links to illegal content.

The court said that Mininova’s notice and take down policy was insufficient to keep it operating within the law.

The news is the latest in an ongoing campaign against file-sharing sites.

Although Mininova has not totally shut down operation, it has now removed all torrents that would enable users to download copyright-protected material, opting instead to only host a limited ‘featured content’ service, which offers legal licensed files.

Tim Kuik – director of Dutch anti-piracy group Brein, said: "We applaud the fact that Mininova now uses the BitTorrent technology for legal business.

"We are not against the technology but only against the use of that technology for illegal purposes."

In a blog post, Mininova staff said the court ruling leaves "no other option than to take our platform offline, except for the content distribution service".

But they added that they were still considering an appeal against the court order.