isoHunt Loses Appeal in Preemptive Strike Against CRIA
Written by enigmax on August 01, 2009Last year the isoHunt BitTorrent search engine launched preemptive legal action in an attempt to have their operations declared legal in Canada. The court decided that the case should go to a full trial instead, a decision which isoHunt appealed but has now been denied.
During September 2008, Gary Fung of BitTorrent site isoHunt took the unusual step of suing the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA), seeking confirmation that the site’s operations (along with sister sites Torrentbox and Podtropolis) 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. IsoHunt asked the court to decide whether BitTorrent search engines could be held liable for .torrent files that might point to copyrighted data, but the CRIA demanded a full trial against the BitTorrent site.
In the end the judge felt that the issues were too complex and consequences too far reaching not to move to a full trial.
IsoHunt appealed that decision but yesterday were turned down by the appeal court.
“The issues involved in this case are fundamental to the rights of creators to earn a living from their work,” said CRIA president Graham Henderson. “A matter of this importance should be considered by a court with access to all the facts and not, as isoHunt had argued, to only one party’s version of the facts. A lower court agreed with us and now so has the court of appeal,” he added.
Speaking with TorrentFreak, isoHunt’s Gary Fung said that the decision was not that sad and was expected.
“We didn’t lose (the case),” he told us, “only a motion on a form of litigation and we’ll have news soon enough on how we are to proceed suing CRIA in self defense”
Previously: Student Hit With $675,000 Fine in RIAA File-Sharing Case
Next: BitTorrent Stands Up for Net Neutrality
36 Responses
Well, that sucks. I’m pretty sure in most peoples eyes that means they’ve lost. Wont be long before ISOHunt end up like ThePirateBay.
Remember what TPB said – “we will never close, no matter what happens to us TPB will continue to operate”. Well, they were certainly wrong about that.
Sad, but I hope it will turn out alright.
The TPB guys have a life to live. They need to get a break from getting sued. Its good they took a break. But selling TPB is a bad decision. They could have passed it onto someone else with the same vision.
it will
the people must come in action!!!!!!!!!
show that stupid ”anti-piracy” members that they are raving nonsense!!!!!!!!
share-
it’s faire
I really like the “fundamental to the rights of creators to earn a living from their work”. So CRIAp, where can the public view the accounting records for all of the monies that are collected from the copyrigth levies on blank media so we can verify that the monies are actually going to the artists that are wanting to earn a living?
CRIA is full of CRIAp.
Minimova is done for, TBP is done for, and now isohunt is sadly joining that bandwagon.
Corrupt justice systems and greedy organizations > Normal civilians. That’s the sad truth, hosting .torrent files is legal, but why do torrent sites lose? It’s because of corrupt sh!t.
oh well, at least it’s in Canada. Have a good fight :)
big companies control every aspect of life; i feel like i’m suffocating
yet again, this is all ablout control. this bs will not stop until the right to use the internet has been taken away from the general public and put into the hands of the world’s biggest corporations. when payment has to be made for the use of the internet and everything that is available in it, whether downloading, uploading, receiving and sending e-mails or simply browsing, then there may be some respite. what a shame that this is in complete contrast to the decision that prevented microsoft from doing the same thing a while back. then it was decided that the internet was and had to remain, free for everyone. just goes to show where the deepest pockets are, doesn’t it?
LONG LIVE The Pirate Bay of Canada!
“Remember what TPB said – “we will never close, no matter what happens to us TPB will continue to operate”. Well, they were certainly wrong about that.”
You’re an idiot. All torrents on TBP will continue to operate.
The name is changing, but the ship is still sailing.
The problem is the CRIA is nothing more than a US lobby group for the US and the corporations there. In Canada has been as intrusive in corporate lives as it has been with the private ones. The only reason they are cheering about chasing Demonoid out of Canada was because they threatened the server with enough legal action to bleed them dry without ever getting a legal decision.
Even the independent record labels in Canada can’t stand CRIA. I think it’s insulting that they have Canada in their name. Unfortunately corporations with their incestuous love affairs with governments will keep going and they will keep their power to screw people over.
It’s sad to see that corporation greed still is more important than in individual’s rights and freedoms
TPB, Mininova, Isohunt, what’s next? BTJunkie!
… Tarraa all – off to nzb ssl land – till they abuse that too …
(but can THEY … SSL is surely secure… OR NOT …. )
“The issues involved in this case are fundamental to the rights of creators to earn a living from their work,”
all that’s pure BS.
lets get some facts straight.
1) TPB had no case when they flashed their butts at copyright owners on takedown requests. We (isoHunt.com) respected copyright owners from the get go before TPB was even around.
2) We’ve been sued by the MPAA 3.5 years ago (and recently with CRIA), long before either TPB or Mininova’s cases and we are still fighting these suits. TPB’s case? Twice the spectacle, twice the fall and in half the time (figuratively speaking)
3) Verdict in Mininova’s case is coming up this month, will see results soon enough. They have a much stronger case than TPB
I’m not saying that I disagree with TPB’s notion that copyright currently is insane, we do and success of the Pirate Party is certainly interesting. But laws are laws and I don’t believe copyright will go away entirely (or should). We are trying to find a middle ground between you guys (consumers, if you will) and the copyright holders so don’t accept defeat just yet.
Best wishes and good luck with the case Gary!
thanks.
Also worth noting that “loses appeal” is with a motion in court procedures. We wanted to make things easy for the court and CRIA, we weren’t allowed so too bad. Don’t get the wrong idea that we lost an appeal to a trial or something, we are no where near a trial yet.
We’ve been fight this for a long time and this is going to be slow cases. North American courts are way more clogged up than in Europe I think
They need to find another country to move their servers to, no point in spending more money to fight a lost cause. The courts and judges are all bought anyways.
I am not convinced this will mean the CRIA will win. Here in Canada, the CRIA is a bit of a joke really. They fought to get a blank media levy in place to cover private copying, but ended up legalizing music downloading in the process. They also got turned down by the major ISPs when they tried to get user information from a few downloaders and the courts sided with the ISPs.
Our Government is in the middle of copyright consultations across the country and online. They plan to introduce a new copyright bill that should clarify all this in the fall. The last two attempts at copyright updating did favour the industry, but both died on the order of the paper when an election was called and this new bill (whether balanced or not) looks like it will have a similar future.
Arr mateys, many should keep a copy (updated every day or a few)of teh torrents and database of the entire site of isohunt just in case it goes down. See here mateys: http://torrentfreak.com/ok-sell-the-pirate-bay-everyone-will-have-a-copy-soon-090727 .
Prob also keep copies of BT-Junkie and admins, keep your site backed up & users keep site backups of your fav sites. Who knowes, it could be your fav site next to close. Better safe then sorry. Pirate on Mateys!
SSL without anonymity is secure as to whom you connect the other party could be anyone.
It only offer security against wiretapping or man in the middle attacks it does nothing to protect you from the party you are connected to.
Fung Interview : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXaALmVabpk
@16
You want to find a middle-ground? Here’s a place to start: stop pushing 12 POS tracks on me for $30, and then telling me that I’m not allowed to cut it up, mash it up, and stick on whatever I want. I had made an AMV with a Johnny Cash song and stuck on Youtube; it wasn’t even the full song, yet the video was *muted* for copyright infringement.
You want a middle-ground? Get your lips off that corporate cock and get me my fucking coffee like I paid you to do, Starbucks. I’ll stop sharing music, movies, and games when I stop getting fucked out of my money by corporations.
What a bummer, I really like isoHunt. These stupid kangaroo courts are out of control!
RT
http://www.anon-web-tools.us.tc
Newer ways of distributing and hosting copy-righted materials will be created.
Many will just come up with more clever ways to distribute them. I am still shocked at how many people try to justify torrent distribution when we all know that 99.99% of it is for copyright infringment distribution.
Be honest with yourselves. I mean you don’t think organizations, governments and companies are going to try and stop these sites?
Just continue to come up with innovative ways to distribute and obtain the files if you really want them.
Follow me at http://www.twitter.com/thecrypticone
“Well, that sucks. I’m pretty sure in most peoples eyes that means they’ve lost. Wont be long before ISOHunt end up like ThePirateBay.
Remember what TPB said – “we will never close, no matter what happens to us TPB will continue to operate”. Well, they were certainly wrong about that.”
Are they offline? no.
“The issues involved in this case are fundamental to the rights of creators to earn a living from their work,” said CRIA president Graham Henderson.
——
That a big LIE. You (CRIA, RIAA, etc.) don’t care at all about the artists, in fact, you have been underpaying to the artists by at least the last 50 years, paying to the musicians that you “supposedly” represent less than 10% of the sale of each album; and the trest 90% is for you, the parasites middle-men from the record industry.
The only persons who deserve to go to the jail are the parasites of the CRIA and RIAA, for being THIEVES.
“The issues involved in this case are fundamental to the rights of creators to earn a living from their work,” said CRIA president Graham Henderson.
——
That a big LIE. You (CRIA, RIAA, etc.) don’t care at all about the artists, in fact, you have been underpaying to the artists by at least the last 50 years, paying to the musicians that you “supposedly” represent less than 10% of the sale of each album; and the rest 90% is for you, the parasites middle-men from the record industry.
The only persons who deserve to go to the jail are the parasites of the CRIA and RIAA, for being THIEVES.
Suing the RIAA CRIA Brein and what not doesn’t help.
The courts have no knowledge of this kind of thing in the first place. And then there is the simple fact that the Media industries put so much money in making sure these kind of people are either brainwashed with that artists make their money from seperate sales or in some way buying the person…
I have no faith whatsoever in the legal system seeing some trials lately, mistrials, judges that simply cannot be unsided…
If they go on, this will be much further widespread than just music (and thus money as that is all it is about here). People will lose faith in justice systems if they keep making misinformed and simply strange decisions like they are…
@30 — I lost faith in the Justice Systems LOOOONG ago.
ISOHUNT to live on
Gary Fung is an annoying loser that isn’t fighting for isohunt but his right to keep the site going so that he can continue to blast ads through it and make money from people installing the spyware toolbars he’s paid to promote.
Sutart Hannig you are the loser here mate did you fallout with one of the mods ? At least Gary will fight on :}
@29 (klm6789t): You sure 10% is the right number? If only. I’d say not even 5% is being paid to the artists.
10% is a fair amount to receive when the label is doing 90% of the work for you when it comes to distribution.
However, if they’re only doing 50% of the work…
@33 (Sutart Hannig): Gary Fung is the owner of ISOhunt. Obviously he’s going to fight for the right to keep his site, because his site is ISOhunt.
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