Iceland’s Largest BitTorrent Tracker Faces Permanent Shutdown
Written by Ernesto on March 16, 2008Torrent.is went to court this week and the site now faces a permanent shutdown and the possibility that they will have to compensate copyright owners. Since nearly 10% of Iceland’s population were members, Torrent.is was by far the most popular BitTorrent tracker in the country.
During 
November last year, Torrent.is received a preliminary injunction, which led to the shutdown of the site and a 50% drop in Internet traffic in Iceland.
The public hearing of the case was held this week, and the plaintiffs asked for a permanent shutdown of the BitTorrent tracker and compensation for damages.
Snæbjörn Steingrímsson, the executive of the Icelandic equivalent of the MPAA (SMAIS) led the investigation, and wants to see his clients compensated for the losses they claim to have suffered because of the tracker.
Steingrímsson said he couldn’t state the exact damages but said they were a few hundred million ISK. Interestingly, Steingrímsson was a member of the BitTorrent site himself, and shared copyrighted material on the tracker as part of his investigation.
Before the tracker was taken offline, Torrent.is had around 26,500 active users, making it by far the largest and most famous private BitTorrent tracker in Iceland. The tracker only allowed Icelandic IPs to connect to their tracker to ensure fast connectivity between peers.
Svavar Kjarrval, the head administrator of Torrent.is is convinced that he has a strong case, as he told TorrentFreak: “The plaintiffs are making an outrageous claim. They argue that website and domain owners should always be responsible for copyright violations of third parties. The case could set a dangerous precedent if the court agrees with their claims.”
It looks like Iceland is getting tougher with file-sharers. Two weeks ago, Reykjavík District Court convicted nine individuals for distributing copyrighted material via Direct Connect. Direct Connect was widely used in Iceland, but nowadays more and more users prefer BitTorrent. The individuals convicted in the Direct Connect case will most likely appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
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Oh wow take it down.. its only going to spring up a few more..
dont they know this doesnt work? lol noobs
Do you know how small Island is? Island is a small country on an island, between Greenland and Norway. Middle of fucking nowhere. They have shitty connection outside of Island, but pretty fast to other Islanders. They have a population of 312 851 people.
Do you now see how this affects BitTorrent and filesharing on Island?
Iceland
Island? you mean Iceland - surely?
The article about the nine convicted of sharing with Direct Connect got off with a relatively light penalty (when I compare it to the stuff I’ve heard here). Nine of them must pay $39,000US not bad considering what US citizens are fined.
he probably confused the norwegian name for Iceland which is Island..
During torrent icelandNovember last year, Torrent.is received a preliminary injunction, which led to the shutdown of the site and a 50% drop in Internet traffic in Iceland.
SHIT!!!
Holy shit. How is he meant to compensate them in a few hundred million?
Oh wait, that’s only about
27,000.53 in EUR. Still quite a significant amount, though.
i bet the ISP’s are pissed they got shut down
why not shut it down? Its not like shutting down legal services illegally is wrong.
Its not like all of those movie-and-music fans will now be too pissed off at the jerks to pay anything near what the jerks want.
Its not like the victims [file-sharers, obviously] only aquired the media because it was reasonably priced, and faced with insane prices to enjoy it “legally” will find something else to do; you know, like reading, gaming, horseback riding, swimming, hanging out, working, going to school, playing hockey/football/basketball.
No, this brilliant action will ensure that all of those ignorant “fans” remember who the protection money is SUPPOSED to go to, and why its supposed to go to;
this brilliant action will ensure that all of those ignorant fans instantly start begging the media companies to come back to rip them off of products worth 1/20th of the actual price.
…f’king dinosaur mafIAA. They are pathetic. The death of their monopoly will be celebrated around the world. The battle with their successor will be glorious:)
[quote comment="312644"]Island? you mean Iceland - surely?[/quote]
“Island” is the norwegian name. And yes, he ment Iceland.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=WO42s0r2LNU
Hey I’ve been to Iceland…seemed like a pretty bland country, but they’re just gonna open 10 more.
[quote comment="312644"]Island? you mean Iceland - surely?[/quote]
[quote comment="312654"]he probably confused the norwegian name for Iceland which is Island..[/quote]
[quote comment="312641"]Iceland[/quote]
Thank’s.. Sorry for the confusion.
The tracker only allowed Icelandic IPs to connect to their tracker.
Iceland have a population of 312851 people. A household have an average of 4 people = 78213 households
The where 26500 users.
So 1 of 3 households where using this tracker.
And the others where getting the stuff from their neighbors.
So you van put everybody in jail.
Iceland ….
what can I say …..
Can you imagine the boredom?
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
How many users has bittorrent ?
I think the movie mafia is desperately trying to win a court case somewhere in the world. This way they can set some kind of precedent in order to take the fight other places “based” on the case that was won in another corner of the world….
“Island” is the icelandic name for Iceland.
Torrent.is.dead.duh!
Don’t worry about the mafia, My healing tones will STOP THEM.
Just check legittorrents.info, mininova or thepiratebay and cure your diabetes and stop autism for free.
No schemes, high quality wave files.
Let these tones feel the world and end the World-wide suffering.
[quote comment="312889"]Torrent.is.dead.duh![/quote]
booooo-riiiiiinnnng.
nice try, bozo.
now go away.
Buying your country’s TLD domain requires a nice load of paperwork and ident stuff. Fail in that.
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