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Court rules against IsoHunt and may be forced to shut down... without a trial!
Well, kind of! A judge decided that IsoHunt 'induced theft' (i.e. copyright infringement), and thus it could be shut down without a trial. This is what's known as a 'summary judgment' in legal terms: when something is so obviously illegal (or legal) as to not require a trial, a summary judgment can be issued. In this case, the judge ruled that IsoHunt is similar enough to Napster and Grokster, and they were found illegal, and thus summarily issued a judgment -- just like that!
"The material facts supporting Plaintiffs' [the movie studio's] claims are almost wholly unrebutted," the judge said -- basically, either the IsoHunt lawyers are incompetent or... well... I don't know. Maybe... IsoHunt is actually guilty... gosh. What a horrible thought.
Of course an appeal can be launched -- and we assume, this time around, with a better legal strategy. In general though, few Torrent indexes or trackers return from the brink. If you use IsoHunt -- and I can't believe I'm saying this, because IsoHunt is awesome -- you should probably start looking for an alternative.
[via Michael Geist (includes a link to the summary judgment itself, if you're interested)]
Comments
28
Subscribe to commentsScooterGDec 26th 2009 4:36PM
Napster - Induces copyright infringement
IsoHunt - Induces copyright infringement
Shooting someone in the head... - Induces murder
Driving to the grocery store with a quickness... - Not so much
trustnooneDec 27th 2009 2:14AM
Exactly they don't even have a tracker.
If there doing that to Isohunt, then they should be suing Google as well (which I would like to seem them try).
I think the problem here is most judges are too dumb or just don't want to figure out how torrenting works even though it is completely legal.
WilliamDec 27th 2009 7:10AM
I remember not so long back folks were trying to sue google over that google earth street level.
Trouble is with all those companies out there with copyright material, don't like it be hosted for free downloading on torrent sites. But that still leaves a valid question to be answered ( what has isohunt got to do with illegal torrent hosting sites )!
Well apart from it's banner on the torrentbox site, the answer would be no, but is ???? isohunt the same has torrent box!!!.
Sebastian AnthonyDec 27th 2009 6:02PM
I think your questions are too complex for a Conservative, old judge...
They are valid points, but I guess neither here nor there.
That's what the big, landmark cases are for. But so far, I don't think any sources of pirate software/media have won a big law case...
MikeDec 28th 2009 5:13PM
Hmmm. Last time I checked my forefathers picked up their muskets in 1812 and faught the US so that we could establish our own soveriegn nation called Canada where Gary Fung lives and operates isohunt.com
This is a token victory for Hollywood, and nothing more right now.
The US courts would have to get an extradite Gary to arrest him, and that is unlikely because Canada does not have the same copyright laws as the US.
In fact, before this happened Gary applied to the Canadian courts to ask them if what he was doing was legal. They can't decide because the laws either aren't there, or haven't been decided on here.
Sebastian AnthonyDec 28th 2009 9:19PM
Well, that's a little heartwarming at least :)
Lenient piracy laws haven't really stopped Torrent sites being shut down in other countries though!
SlipkidDec 30th 2009 6:26PM
I actually replied this to an earlier post but it was after a lot more comments were made so I feel it bears adding to the end here for those that have been following along here.
It all seems to me like saying the Automakers are inducing breaking the law by making cars that go over the speed limit.
rhombus1000Feb 16th 2010 7:13AM
there's no apostrophe in studios, dumbass.