IsoHunt Asks Court to Legalize Its Operations
Written by Ernesto on November 27, 2009For more than a year, BitTorrent search engine isoHunt has chased the Canadian music industry in court. In an act of self-defense, the founder of the site has sued the Canadian branch of the RIAA, asking the court to legalize its operations. After an initial setback, isoHunt submitted a full claim to the court this week.
During September 2008, isoHunt founder Gary Fung grew tired of the threats from the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA). Instead of waiting for the CRIA to take action against him, Fung took the unusual step of suing the music industry outfit, seeking confirmation that the site’s operations are legal.
“This is our preemptive strike with a narrowly defined petition for Declaratory Relief that we do not infringe, in anticipation they are going to file their own lawsuit that we do infringe (their copyright),” Fung told TorrentFreak at the time.
In March 2009, isoHunt and the CRIA appeared in court where the judge ruled that the issues in question were too complex and consequences too far-reaching not to move to a full trial. This decision was appealed by isoHunt, but without result, meaning that isoHunt has to go through the costly process of a full trial.
This week, isoHunt’s founder continued his crusade and filed the statement of claim (pdf) with the Supreme Court. The document describes the functionality of the search engines he operates (isoHunt and sister sites Torrentbox and Podtropolis) and asks the court to declare that these do not violate Canadian copyright law.
Despite the worsening copyright climate in other parts of the world, Fung remains confident that Canadian law is on his side. “I have high hopes for Canadian copyright laws and its courts to not make the mistakes that have been made elsewhere in the world. We must fight the increasing noise we are drowned in, that file sharing is stealing,” he said.
“As for CRIA and member record labels, if you come to your sense of reason, I would love to talk to you outside of court. The ball you’ve dropped on us is back to you,” Fung concludes.
After the partial shutdown of Mininova yesterday, isoHunt is now the second largest torrent site around in terms of traffic, trailing only behind The Pirate Bay. However, all of Fung’s torrent sites combined draw more traffic than any other torrent site around. Aside from the three torrent sites mentioned in the case and despite the legal troubles, Fung recently launched Hexagon, a new ‘social‘ BitTorrent site.
Previously: Mandelson Gets His Own Digital Economy Bill Protest Song
Next: SceneTorrents BitTorrent Tracker Shuts Down
77 Responses
Good work!
An epic fail soon to be seen. I just love these little whining pirates. Get a life!
It’s all down hill from here!
riaa SUCKS
isoHunt isn’t gonna go legal, is it? :/
Don’t worry Riaa has enough money to pay off the ca judge .. it’ll all be over soon.
Pfft
Welcome to the future…
Bad move. They should fight the legal battle when they come, not pre-emptively. Haven’t they learn anything from Bush?
SceneReleases.info is currently down due to copyright issues with our previous server.
We are trying our best to ensure SceneReleases is back up soon or before the end of today at max.
We apologize for any inconveniences.
@King Kong
Fag. Enjoy. Btw I’m loving it. Bout’ time someone fought back.
@GOREslinger
Why is king kong a fag? Do you know he is into same sex, or does his opinion offend you so you have to resort to name calling to make you feel better?
marc emery showed us that the USA can extradite canadian citizens who have never been to the usa, nor broken any major canadian laws
Imo a good unusual try. Good job
It’s good that someone tries to strike back preemptively, it’s more convincing in court and it might even set a positive precedent if the outcome is favorable.
Actually it was about time this happened. Why should we always go on the defense? Why are we always harassed? Why do these organisations never face fines or disbandment when they lose a case?
Sadly, it’s all about money and bribes.
Boycott all Corporate Music & Films.do not ever buy any new products from the greedbags again folks.
And if you really need a fix try the used stores in your local area before buying used online.
Buy Used Not New and save money for you and give no money to the greedbags !!!
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@asdda
no shit?
“Vincent Willem van Gogh… was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter whose work had a far-reaching influence on 20th century art for its vivid colors and emotional impact. He suffered from anxiety and increasingly frequent bouts of mental illness throughout his life, and died largely unknown, at the age of 37, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Little appreciated during his lifetime, his fame grew in the years after his death. Today, he is widely regarded as one of history’s greatest painters and an important contributor to the foundations of modern art… ”
–Wikipedia
File-sharing, whether via peer groups or other ways, of course helps recognize new and developing art/music/film that we might otherwise not.
While sharing is caring, it is also vitality, diversity, cultural health.
While you’re sharing, I would respectfully recommend topping it off with something else entirely different, and/or even uploading something you’ve done yourself– perhaps a digitized and re-animated flipbook animation; an old cassette recording of a live piece your dad did in the 70’s; or your student film that got a good mark.
These are all culturally priceless.
I suspect the outcome will be that bribed politicians and bribed judges will scorn these efforts and that isohunt will not be deemed legal.
It seems the only way for us to proceed is with a dark-net… where nobody knows the source (or true destination) of the data due to proxy-peers.
When that happens, the MAFIAA, their money, their powerful connections… will ALL be rendered impotent.
We will see this “dark-net” within the next 10 years.
with sharing in our hearts lets fight till thy end!
never let go!
3rd letter in a row..
carry on as we must, lets fight this war for freind and foe..
cmon people get behind each other and fight them greedy fuckers!
No dice.
@19 such a darknet already exists, and while slow and files often get lost, at the moment it is 99% anonymous. However, it is relatively small compared to the bittorrent community, which has kept it safe from attackers (such as FBI, MAFIAA, etc).
If all of bittorrent moved to such darknets, while speeds might improve (with improvements to the protocol), it also would gain much more attention from potential attackers, which would greatly compromise the anonymity of the network.
fuck off this court
why these court leave us alone
p2p is best
sharing is caring
It will be interesting to see the outcome of this. Either way, it is good to see ‘pirates’ fighting back.
isohunt surely has my support even though I don’t use the site.
Just dont take down Isohunt….thats one of the few ones I’m registered on.
Unlike, mininova (or monova, the extremely sucky version of it) both those crap sites, I would be sad if isohunt were to disappear, cuz there arent too many already self-sufficient community-organized and strong sites still up right now.
How do you “support” isoHunt, if you don’t use it?
Also General Question
Hexagon CC intends to be legal (?!)
It has one invite code crossed out (?!)
Another invite displayed, though (?)
It’s trying (?) to appear by invite only (?) But you get a code from isoHunt(!)
Once in all the usual copyrighted stuff is in the groups along with some legal content (?!)
How is it different then (apart from registering with an (open (private)) code (???)
Guardian Newspaper “Darknet” article @ http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/nov/26/dark-side-internet-freenet
Now all the middle classes will be using it!
The Canadian supreme court has in the past ruled in favor of the file sharers. This might be surprising for many but Canada has been hit with many repressive taxes that have been “imposed” at the request of the music industry. Due to this and completely at the astonishment of the music industry the sharing of MP3s has been declared to be completely legal, as we already “pay” for that right.
While this will likely change over time with copyright laws changing, I am expecting the supreme court to rule fairly and quite honestly, accurately within the law.
Bribing a judge is one thing, bribing a large number of judges (as with the supreme court) is quite another thing altogether. I would suspect that even the RIAA doesn’t have that much money hanging around to win this case.
Us Canadians pay a tax on every Blank CD we own, because we have the potential to use it for Music. God forbid I need to put Debian or anohter Linux Distro on it, Free Software.
“Bribing a judge is one thing, bribing a large number of judges (as with the supreme court) is quite another thing altogether.”
Really? What’s the difference? 20 millions dollars instead of just one million dollar? EVERYONE can be bought, supreme judges included. It’s just a matter of how much you offer them…
… or how sharp your blackmail tool is (like in: “hey mister, if you don’t rule in the favor of my client, your little daughter may have an ‘unfortunate’ accident on the way home.”). Of course MAFIAA thinking and maybe even acting like Al Capone wouldn’t surprise me, when the stakes are high enough.
Massive respect to Isohunt for this!
Bit dodgy and hypocritical anti-pirate corps going after torrent indexers. I mean, i can find torrents on google, or even (if i was so inclined) child porn! What do these MAFIAA doods ultimately want? To have a gigantic database (ie – the internet) but no one is allowed to see whats on it? …except for themselves of course =P
Fight the good fight Gary Fung.
Gary Fung is a legend. Respect
Fung: “I have high hopes for Canadian copyright laws and its courts to not make the mistakes that have been made elsewhere in the world. We must fight the increasing noise we are drowned in, that file sharing is stealing,”
I’ll be very surprised if a Canadian court rules files sharing to be legal.It’s always a matter of lobbying with copyright infringements and we all now who’s got money to waste of lobbying…
I hope Canada do not disappoint me. Technically the site do not violate the law there, if it does, google does too.
good luck Gary
Open your minds and realize that not every person is a greedy, self-absorbed monster. Not everyone can be bought. Supreme Court justices gained their highly-respected positions by exhibiting an impecable track record and a binding promise to uphold an accurate, fair and unbiased delivery of the current Canadian law.
It has already been proven in Canada in 2005 that downloaders are not directly liable for copyright infringement and that our massive levy on blank CDs — blank DVDs are exponentially cheaper than blank CDs — pays for the ‘many’ that download music.
This has set the precedent in Canada for the CRIA’s underhanded approach of lobbying the government, cautiously avoiding the Canadian court system, wary of its verdict on similar cases.
isoHunt is currently protected. They do everything within their capability to remove infringing ‘links’ (not even required by current legislation) and do not encourage or condone copyright infringement, and moreover do not host infringing files.
While ‘linking’ to copyright infringing material — the established definition used for the RIAA lawyers’ misdirection — may be questionable or even illegal in the United States, it is not in Canada, by current legislation.
isoHunt wants to push this through the courts as fast as they can before the CRIA is able to force corrupt politicians to alter the law in their favor.
With any luck, isoHunt will get a verdict before the CRIA has duped the Conservatives into signing into law the industry’s skewed interpretations of what is right, which are overwhelmingly denounced by the Canadian public.
We have to take the power back from the industries. Gary Fung is doing it his unique way, for all of us. The more pirate ship cannons pointed toward the industry the better. Mad respect to Gary for all his efforts.
I really admire Gary Fung. I am a Canadian too. I fully support him on this issue. According to Canadian copyright law, I really do not see what hell is wrong with index site. If the court decided to shutdown ISOHUNT, then we have to ask the court to shutdown Google. As on Google, there are so many copyright News and information. Of course, if the government is going to change the law, then, there is nothing we can do but veto the in charged Party.
I am going to launch my torrent site in the coming months. But I really do not have the balls to set it up in Canada. I will set it up in mainland China.
I really admire his courage to challenge CRIA. Great job!!!
Once he sets up an successful example, I will move my site back.
the internet sucks now , o well il just have to download from rpaidshare now xD
There we go again. Trying to mask moral insanity with technical terms. Fung is trying to distract the court with technical details. What a torrent file is or how it works simply doesn’t change the fact that IsoHunt uses torrent files to help people circumvent the law. OK, it’s only a search engine, not a tracker. But it still help people to search for torrent files and download them. That makes it much easier, in fact isohunt provides all the important functions that a so called file sharer needs.
It’s sad that we live in a world where people go to work and earn money, while other people don’t pay anything and get off the hook by explaining to a judge what a seeder or a peer is.
welcome to the future, here is your free porn :)
@38
That was one the best summaries of Canadian copyright law I have ever seen on TF. You won the board.
Gary Fung: You have my sword!
http://www.plentyoftorrents.com Is using Isohunt as their first choice for searches now that Mininova is dead.
“…Fung remains confident that Canadian law is on his side.”
The Pirate Bay crew said that. And they lost. As well as others. They all think the law is on their side, but the corporations have more money to bribe judges and politicians. This is just sad. Although if ISOHunt did disappear, I could care less. They have too many fake files asking you to download some sort of media player and opening a web page. If they filtered their crap files better, then maybe I would give a shit.
lmao! canadians are so retarded!
“lmao! canadians are so retarded!”
What are you talking about you silly person?
And my bow!
And MY axe!
And my bra!
And in other news
Public UK Wi-Fi Hotspot Owner Fined 8000GBP for Users Illegal Download
http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/broadband/uk-pub-fined-8k-for-drinker-s-wi-fi-download-654606
Go Isohunt! :)
best release movies from isohunt
http://isohunt.com/torrents/?ihq=maxspeed
interveiw with Gary :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXaALmVabpk
You go Gary!! :D
@ Paul London UK .It is hardly a fine but is a civil claim. If the bar owner has decided to roll over and pay 8,000 GBP all fool him.
Dude! Put your bra back on, that’s disgusting!
Just kidding, good luck Gary. Isohunt does have some junk on it, you just have to be smarter than a stapler to figure out which files are good or not. Maybe a little bran in your diet would help clear things up so you can see better.
Under our current laws in Canada, Isohunt probably does have a legitimate case. The laws, and the judges (so far) are definitely on the side of the file sharer at this time. It’s a big part of the reason we have huge pressure from the US to change our copyright laws, and why the government has been having extended consultations as to how to go about copyright reform.
I suspect that Isohunt will win this case, only to be blindsided later on by changed copyright laws if/when the ACTA treaty comes into effect.
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@47
unfortuantely some of them are actually retarded.
scenetorrents.org is no more. RIP ScT.
Such a secretive network exists (where do you think, your ‘oh so loved’ quality files come from?!).. and if you’re no homo, you CAN gain xs.. just gotta deliver, leave the open net or participate as another identity and work for it day by day..
no one with 1/6 of a brain wants an open network, that enables ‘everyone and his dog’ as well as the last ‘technically challenged’ person to be able to get every last bit of digital data in a snap..
so the destruction of all p2p networks isn’t only a work done by mpaa and riaa, but every member of the scenepolice..
all those sites generating $$$ with their ads and massive userbase have to -and will- GO.. filehosting sites are next.. then comes usenet.. and finally.. it’s back to peace, where friends -and only they- share what they have, in a competition that generates fun and knowledge.
Way to go dudes!!
a noble idea, but when people realize they are getting dicked… they want what others have. its kind of like learning to read in the middle ages, ya dig?
Where is Reasoned Troll and NeoTroll? I haven’t seen any comments from them lately. It’s amazing that BOTH disappeared at the same time. Couldn’t be the same person, could they?
Its the weekend Brudda, and they are paid whores!. They only have opinions when they are paid to have them!
Open Source Government won’t be bought…
“Really? What’s the difference? 20 millions dollars instead of just one million dollar? EVERYONE can be bought, supreme judges included. It’s just a matter of how much you offer them…”
Poster above’s quote. I wish isohunt the best and am glad there are people fighting for my rights to have fair use, have back ups of dvd’s so I don’t need to rip them myself but rather click torrents to download, and can’t wait till open source parties work their way into parliament like pirate parties do.
http://www.opensourceg.com is my 15 dollar domain holding idea. Just thought voting alongside our politicians is in order. I want better transparency on issues that matter to this tax paying citizen.
Voting every 5 years ain’t enough! 3 days after election the winner is bought so we need accountability THROUGHOUT the 5 years of their term. Major spending, new proposed laws (voted on by the public BEFORE the House of Commons votes on it, THEN we can see who the snakes are)
Would love some help. Happy to walk to Modor, just don’t know the way. (maybe a few guys /w an axe, bow and swords can help a brotha out ;)
http://www.opensourceg.com :D
its not about whether right or wrong. Its about who has the money to strike. RIAA and other lobbyist group have already successfully tackled piratebay, mininova, and other major pirate sites.
I fear that Gary Fung’s efforts will be in vain, and isohunt is appearing on radar for imminent strike following demonoid and others.
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IsoHunt is an indexer. I don’t see how they could possibly be called illegal.
Nothing but respect to Mr. Fung.
Now if every other little “whining pirate” actually took action like him we’d start to see some social change.
In the meantime every other LAZY douche on the net will just sit there …
on the net … doing NOTHING to preserve its beauty and freedom.
Making noise for our rights is a million times more far reaching than sitting back and criticizing the man for fighting back.
Stop being a narrow minded pussy and make some noise of your own there “king kong”.
and today dec 2 isohunt is down :(
why?
not down here buddy ;)
RIAA, CRIA are all blood suckers
I found a HOTTEST interracial club =MixedConnect *.* C0M=for black Women and white Men, or black Men and white Women, to interact with each other. Interracial is not a problem here, but a great merit to cherish!
wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot it’s about time!
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