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Internet isoHunt.com Taken Down, Relocates to Canada
Marcus Yam (Blog) - January 17, 2007 2:23 PM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 27 comment(s) - last by mindless1.. on Jan 19 at 5:55 AM
Popular BitTorrent site isoHunt.com shut down without warning

Yesterday afternoon, popular BitTorrent search site isoHunt.com went offline without any advanced notice. The site was unreachable for hours until its site staff posted an explanation for the downtime.

“Lawyers from our primary ISP decided to pull our plug without any advance notice, as of 14:45 PST. No doubt related to our lawsuit brought by the MPAA, but we don't have more information at this time until people responsible come to work tomorrow,” the site notice read. “We will be back in operation once we sort out this mess with our current ISP, or we get new hardware ready at our new ISP.”

The entertainment industry has long targeted file sharing sites but with limited success. The Motion Picture Association of America last year filed lawsuits against a number of BitTorrent sites, among them isoHunt.com, with information on how to download the latest movies. European-based PirateBay.org has also come under fire from authorities, but so far has managed to stay afloat. In an effort to escape legal waters, PirateBay.org is currently investigating the possibility of purchasing Sealand, a man-made island. isoHunt.com, however, is making it clear that it believes its operation is legal and has no intention of avoiding the authorities.

An update posted today on isoHunt reads: “FYI, since this is a common topic, no, moving servers to Sweden or Sealand isn't going to help. I have no intention of hiding our servers. BitTorrent was created for legitimate distribution of large media files, and we stand by that philosophy as a search engine and aggregator.”

isoHunt.com is now hosting its temporary page from Canada, and it is unclear when or if the site will resume operations from the U.S.

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Same ol' argument
By bighairycamel on 1/17/2007 3:55:48 PM , Rating: 5
You gotta know that ISOhunt.com knows illegal activities are going on in the servers they are searching.... but this is a search engine for God's sakes. Lets sue Google and Yahoo for allowing people to search the term "free movies". This is the site the MPAA suggested write an algorithm to filter out any illegal searches. Obiously, the staff over at the MPAA aren't web programmers. I side with ISOhunt totally.




RE: Same ol' argument
By Tsuwamono on 1/17/2007 3:59:59 PM , Rating: 2
I agree completely.

I personally dont download games or movies *shifty eyes*

But a friend of a friend of a friend does *shifty eyes* and he uses Google. All... HE.. does is type in "Name of file" then torrent right afterwards and it basicly turns google into the biggest Torrent search site on the net.

MPAA are retards... hurray!


RE: Same ol' argument
By thejez on 1/17/2007 5:54:18 PM , Rating: 2
the big difference here is that google just links to the sites that in-turn link to the actual torrent... they dont host links to torrent files and i think thats what is at issue here... i think the MPAA is going to try and somehow say a torrent of a pirated film is somehow protected by the law.... that is where its a tough stretch for them legally... last time i checked MPAA didnt have any ownership of a .torrent file... now that .torrent may again in turn provide links to data distributed across the net which then *may* when assembled become some property they own...


RE: Same ol' argument
By mindless1 on 1/17/2007 10:37:25 PM , Rating: 3
The big difference here is that Google has a little clout, isn't going to be shut down by persuading one ISP. MPAA likes soft targets.


RE: Same ol' argument
By jas8522 on 1/18/2007 5:55:23 AM , Rating: 2
Yes there's is indeed a difference. The point is that ISOhunt is standing up to forced shutdown of it's class of website. If nobody does it, then each site is going to get shutdown, and surely more are going to be put up, but there's always the possibility that they do not. So when all the sites hosting torrents go down, what will google searches reveal? Dead links.

Jordan


RE: Same ol' argument
By Samus on 1/18/2007 12:39:26 AM , Rating: 2
If they [RIAA, MPAA] would let me DOWNLOAD non-DRM encoded content at reasonable (~iTunes) prices. I would.

But I'm not going to pay $1 a song or $10 an album when I have to install proprietary software to download and play it back, and use proprietary devices to transfer too and travel with it.

That's unreasonable, and as far as I'm concerned, should be illegal in itself. This is why I pirate music.

I love all the indie labels because they let you download MP3's for usually $6-$10 per album. Fortunate for me, the indie labels also carry the genre of music I listen too (acid punk, synthpop, heavy rock, etc)


RE: Same ol' argument
By MrSmurf on 1/18/07, Rating: -1
Good stuff
By blackseed on 1/17/2007 3:34:56 PM , Rating: 2
Always, there is a way out. I am sure they will relocate as soon as they get tracked :)

Blackseed




RE: Good stuff
By Samus on 1/18/2007 12:42:05 AM , Rating: 2
I think their case is plausible. They don't need to run and hide, they can probably put up a swift fight and have them off their backs in no time. It's just going to cost them money. Money they don't have.


...
By tigen on 1/17/2007 7:01:53 PM , Rating: 2
Going after torrent sites doesn't really accomplish much anyway. Going after average users would scare people.

But there are always other channels. NNTP servers always have lots of illegal stuff but nobody goes after those providers. How much revenue would those providers lose if they no longer had all the music, movies and games?




By Mezo on 1/18/2007 4:25:32 AM , Rating: 2
From wiki
quote:

From 2007 Sealand is available for transfer by Spanish estate company InmoNaranja. It is explicitly stated that Sealand is not for sale, as a principality cannot be sold.A sum of between £65,000,000 and £504,000,000 (US$977 million, €750,000,000) is set as the price for the new tenant(s). Offers of "eight digits or over" are being solicited.
The Pirate Bay, arguably one of the world's largest and most notable BitTorrent trackers, has announced its plans to initiate a fund raiser campaign to attempt to pay for the transfer,

Well doesn't this sound like complete B.S !!




Facilitating a crime is a crime also
By cornfedone on 1/17/07, Rating: -1
RE: Facilitating a crime is a crime also
By NaughtyGeek on 1/17/2007 5:03:30 PM , Rating: 5
You work for the MPAA or the RIAA dude? As was stated above, Google can get you the same information but the MPAA and RIAA have no intentions of pursuing that avenue because they know Google actually has the funds needed to defend themselves properly.


By jmunjr on 1/17/2007 6:35:06 PM , Rating: 1
Google rarely if ever links directly to a copyrighted file for an extended period, while the torrents HOST the torrent files which download the copyrighted files. How close does a site have to get to be doing something illegal? How far away from a file to not? If site A links to site B which links to site C etc all the way to Z who hosts a torrent for a bootleg, which sites are ok and which are bad? You can't get much closer than hosting a bittorrent file(other than hosting the bootleg). It is blatantly obvious most of these torrent sites host torrents of bootleg stuff, yet they do NOTHING to prevent it.

I don't want to see them disappear but I am not going to cry foul if they do. The stance that the MPAA or RIAA hasn't accommodated or done the right things for their customer therefore we can pirate stuff is just plain stupid. Everyone knows these sites are used for piracy, we all use them for piracy, yet we get mad when they get taken down. The fact that they are used for legitimate purposes is irrelevant, since clearly that is a very small % of the total usage. Just look at the top torrents or latest torrents on any of these site. All copyrighted stuff. So quit your whining.


By Daijobu on 1/18/2007 2:15:14 AM , Rating: 1
Agreed!!! We should put all gun retailers in jail for all those gun related murders!!! In fact we should also ban carbon since it is the base of all life, and we humans steal stuff.....


RE: Facilitating a crime is a crime also
By mindless1 on 1/17/2007 10:40:59 PM , Rating: 2
Sure, let's all pay more taxes to house more teenagers watching DVDs. We all know that's what the problem with this world is and nirvana is only a larger tax bill away.

How about some introspection, find qualities in youself to hate and change instead of trying to punish others. Your happiness does not depend on whether someone watches a video for free, even if you are in the biz if you see a sinking ship it's time to learn to swim.


RE: Facilitating a crime is a crime also
By Christopher1 on 1/18/2007 6:24:46 AM , Rating: 2
True. DVD piracy, game piracy, etc. is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO common now, that it's time for the gaming and movie industries to just say "Okay, we cannot sustain our current business model, so perhaps it is time to move to a different one. We could put DVD burning kiosks in stores so that people could bring their own DVD-DL's and burn their own discs, we could put HD-DVD burning kiosks in stores as well and do the same thing. That would save us: shipping costs, physical media costs, and manufacturing costs."


By msva124 on 1/18/2007 6:45:20 PM , Rating: 2
Yeah, movie companies are no longer making money off DVD's. Not.

Piracy might be common for you and your friends, but for middle america, buying stuff is the norm.


RE: Facilitating a crime is a crime also
By Samus on 1/18/2007 12:40:50 AM , Rating: 2
So if I let you borrow my car and you go rob a bank with it, I become an accessory? Thank God you don't make the laws ;)


By iNGEN on 1/18/2007 1:37:03 PM , Rating: 2
Actually Samus,

In my state that is accurate. Done that, been there.


RE: Facilitating a crime is a crime also
By codeThug on 1/18/2007 12:49:25 AM , Rating: 2
So why isn't NetFlix shutdown? If I can't find the torrent I just fire up Netflix, have it delivered, and then rip it. Netflix is an accessory in this case. Netflix knows this stuff is going on all the time.

The solution to this mess is simple marketing practice. Drop the f*cking price down to 5 bux, and I'll buy the f*cking movie at the checkout line. In fact I'll buy a lot more movies. The more the MPAA morons tighten their supposed grip, the more people will say "screw you".

So yeah, let's make some room for these "felony" bit torrent people in our already overcrowded jails by releasing even more rapists, and child abusers.


RE: Facilitating a crime is a crime also
By jmunjr on 1/18/07, Rating: -1