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Isohunt and Friends Taken Down by the MPAA

Isohunt.com, one of the most popular BitTorrent search engines was taken offline by its ISP. The takedown is most likely related to the lawsuit initiated by the MPAA last year.

isohuntFebruary 2006 the MPAA announced lawsuits (PDF) against Torrentspy, Torrentbox and Isohunt, three of the most popular BitTorrent search engines. Isohunt owner Gary later told TorrentFreak that they will not bow down to the MPAA. Isohunt hired a top-notch lawyer, specialized in Internet copyrights, and teamed up with Torrentbox.

However, on Isohunt.com and their sister sites Torrentbox.com and Podtropolis.com we now read, “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 comes to work tomorrow. 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.”

It is unknown why Isohunt’s ISP made this move, almost a year after the lawsuit was announced. Whatever their reasons maye be, it seems that the Isohunt.com team will not back down that easily. A backup of the site is ready to go online as soon as Isohunt finds a new ISP.

Stay Tuned!

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  • Simon

    This is such bullshit. They don’t host the files but give links to get to them …sounds like every fucking search engine running today including Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. Seems like money makes all the difference in the eyes of the law.

    They should look into a new ISP, maybe somewhere nice like Sealand ;)

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  • corsyjaws

    yer its bullshit the ppl that should b sued are the ones that actually upload the torrent files for the copyrighted stuff plus i read isohunt actually delete copyrighted stuff so by all means isohunt is doing wat they should do mpaa are a bunch of tossers and should go root eachohter

  • corsyjaws

    now theyve also actuall removed the sites the page wont load so the site odnt exist anymore thats not kool

  • Mikey

    Isohunt is also a tracker. And that means that they are just simply hosting links, doing nothing illegal? I don’t think so. A few of you morons should look up the law (present in most non-3rd world countries) regarding secondary infringement as well.

  • Simon

    Ok Mikey, as a lawyer, tell us how youtube gets away with hosting copyrighted videos. Answer: Copyright provision 512(c). …Hosting a tracker is not in and of itself illegal. Funny you bring up 3rd world countries though as this is most likely where the new isohunt server will be hosted.

    This is a temporary victory for the long arm of the unenforceable law.

    - Simon

  • Mikey

    Simon, you expect any judge in any country to rule that Isohunt had absolutely no knowledge of the content they were pointing to and tracking? It would be difficult to find anything on that site that was not infringing someone’s copyright. Isohunt is 100% liable for contributory infringement as (again) outlined in the law of most non-3rd -world countries. Isohunt also receives a direct financial benefit which is directly attributable to their illegal activity (ad revenue, affiliates, donations, etc). They probably also fall foul of the grokster (inducement) ruling. Alas, if only 3rd world countries had cheap broadband and hosting!

  • Rexton

    Mikey, isn’t that a little like getting arrested because a guy you gave directions to the bank robbed it?

  • PiSS’d

    The GREED of the Corps has made things the way they are. This Issue will NEVER go away, just change. The prices being charged for a bit of code is rediculous. Sure the author deserves his part to make a living but NOT the Corporation that owns him. There is no packaging cost here no fancy usless wrapper. Just some guy with a bit of bandwidth and a wish to stay in touch with the main stream. Fat Cats on their White Elephant Rides must and will go away…! The cost of running the stupid sloth corporate entities is what drives up the price to where a have not underclass has been created. They have the right to obtain this material any way they can so as NOT to be left behind. The crimes we speak of were invented in our life time. They were created to protect the CorpRats to facilitate their piramid schemes. There is BO service here to the average man….!

  • Simon

    Mikey, mikey, mikey. The reason for Copyright provision 512(c) is so web publishers aren’t held accountable for what users of thier systems do. Without this provision every website would be legaly responsible for every piece of data posted. The internet as we know it could not exist this way.

    Saying what isohunt did or didn’t have knowledge of something is conjecture. Does google know people use their service for illegal ends? What about paypal? Maybe, but it can’t be proven. Do ISP’s know that their newsgroups host illegal files? Does sony know people used tape recorders to copy movies? We can go on.

    A tracker is a gray area of the law and certainly not one to be interpreted by an ISP. Let the MPAA litigation run it’s due course.

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  • Alex

    Hey, i read on isohunts temp page that they successfully found a isp in Canada and moved there, they also got all the data over there too, but it will be a few days before its but because they upgraded their hardware making isohunt faster and better, stay tuned for more information

    -Alex

  • chaos

    As long as there will be poor people in the world there will always be an “isohunt” , no matter how censored the internet becpmes .

  • yvonne

    Isohunt is in effect a search engine same as google, yahoo, alta vista, msn etc.

    so when i google to find a link and get it that must be illegal if isohunt ‘s info is.

    I don’t see the difference.

  • Will

    “Mikey, mikey, mikey. The reason for Copyright provision 512(c) is so web publishers aren’t held accountable for what users of thier systems do. Without this provision every website would be legaly responsible for every piece of data posted. The internet as we know it could not exist this way.”

    When you say that their not knowing of the material on their site is conjecture, you accept the fact that it is not known whether or not IsoHunt really did support or know of this pirated material. That means that they were following the rulebook you call “The Law”, and that they can not be held accountable for such material. Also, who do you support in this issue, the people who are living in this modern age of communication, or the corporations who are making a buck off of it?

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  • Minos

    Sealand has leased space to one cybercompany with no problems. Maybe looking into it seriously wouldn’t be the worst idea.

    The Sealand cost is I think $950,000,000 so an outright purchase seems out of the question.

    Cuba? Or even lower where Chaves rules. He doesn’t like the U.S. Government.

  • asia4all.com

    Stay strong and let middle stinky fingers shoot up to MPAA and RIAA! These greedy corrupt decadent “companies” with dope sniffing lawyers want take control over the world. You are the guy(s) showing to the community the right way. Keep it up!

  • yoman

    Guys,

    Whats really needed here is a new form of DNS!! and a differnent defautl port for websurfing. rogue dns!! this way those crusty bastards who dont tune into our dns tree cant even find any of our websites!

  • locgineer

    Relax folks. This has happened before and will continue to happen. We have seen the disapearance or transformation of many P2P’s and survived them all.
    Give it a few days and either isohunt or someone else will be there for you. The corps cannot win, this is too big.

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  • lol at $

    lets all just go back to mirc

  • mike

    all they have to do is drop the price of CDs. they cost the same as DVD’s. and even at the consumer level dvds cost twice as much to manufacture. i paid radiohead and NIN for their self releases. its the record companies that suck.

  • SunJay

    This is getting bad…. Are the ISP’s trying to censor the internet like Communist China? TO dictate what a website can and cannot host or display, that should be illegal. If things don’t change, a select few massive corporations will be gain control of everything and prices will skyrocket….. anyone wonder why gas prices are 5.50$++++??? All I have to say is that IsoHunt rocks and needs to keep fighting!!! And that whoever their service provider is sucks crusty balls and needs to go fuck their mothers.

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