Legal Bullying Continues for Icelandic BitTorrent Tracker
Written by Ernesto on September 27, 2008It has been almost a year since a coalition of anti-piracy organizations forced Torrent.is, the largest BitTorrent site in Iceland, to go offline. In the months that followed, the BitTorrent site has won in court more than once, but it has not returned yet, as the anti-piracy groups continue to come up with new claims.
Founded in May 2005, Torrent.is had around 26,500 active users before the site was taken offline. The site only allowed Icelandic IPs to connect to the tracker, and it was by far the largest and most famous private BitTorrent tracker in Iceland.
Its popularity didn’t go unnoticed with the local anti-piracy lobby either. During November last year, Svavar Kjarrval, the owner of the tracker, received a preliminary injunction. While the majority of BitTorrent tracker owners would throw in the towel when confronted with legal action, Svavar decided to put up a fight. “I’m going to fight this as far as I possibly can. The general public seems to be on our side,” he told TorrentFreak at the time.
It turned out that he made the right decision. In March the court ruled in favor of the BitTorrent tracker. Svavar, and all Icelandic BitTorrent users were pleased with the outcome, but the legal bullying was far from over. As expected, the preliminary injunction stayed in effect, as the Icelandic movie and music industries announced they would appeal the decision at the Icelandic Supreme Court.
This May, the case was heard by the Supreme Court, and Torrent.is won again. The case was dismissed because some of the plaintiffs were found to have no legal grounds to pursue an injunction, and Torrent.is received an additional 400,000 ISK ($5025 US or 3250 Euros) on top of the 500,000 ISK that was already awarded in March.
Speaking to TorrentFreak, Torrent.is owner, Svavar Kjarrval, said he was “very happy with the decision.” He even planned to reopen the tracker on the May 16th. However, it never got that far as STEF (the Icelandic RIAA) filed a new lawsuit, demanding the shutdown of the site and some form of financial compensation.
This case was heard, and yesterday – yet again – the District Court ruled in favor of Torrent.is. The court again dismissed STEF’s demand to confirm the injunction. However, the legal bullying is still not over. Not all demands were dismissed directly, and STEF is likely to appeal at the Supreme Court for the ones that weren’t.
“I am happy about that partial victory even though I hoped for a complete dismissal,” Svavar told TorrentFreak in a response to the latest ruling. “The future is uncertain but I have confidence that the Icelandic court system will see that the case is based on a shaky foundation.”
Svavar further said that he’s not sure whether he will reopen the site once this action is over, however long that may take.
Previously: Warez Scene Member Gets 3 Years Probation, $2000 Fine
Next: Lessig’s ‘Free Culture’ Now Available with DRM
28 Responses
If the general public is on their side, then surely they can try to advocate some change in law, for people to vote for politicians for a change in copyright law?
Roze
http://www.28chan.org/apstdt/
fuck the stef gogo gadget torrent.is =DD
Good for him, as everyone knows you have to stand up to the bully or it will never end.
At least this way he is getting paid for his troubles over and over… would be nice if they make him a millionaire like this :D
The RIAA and the spinoffs are the slime of the earth, so its really no surprise they would continue to do crap like this, i say keep kicking them in their nuts Svavar, we are cheering everytime you do so my Nordic brother :)
Cheers!
http://www.eZee.se
This is great!
let the slimy STEF rot in HELL
wow, congrats to these guys. seriously – job well done! this is a wide awakening to the lobby organizations trying to get rid of bittorrent sites. amazing victory, way to go guys.
good to see you standing up and fighting for what you believe Svavar
more power to you dude 8)
Is this not getting into the realms where Svavar has grounds for legal action against STEF for harassment?
Does “dismissed” set any legal precedent? That’s what counts.
Its important that he does reopen the site.
Whilst yes, the anty piracy peeps might not win in caught, if the site does not make a return, they will have as good as won.
Dismissed on those grounds YES would set presidents.
It would if they keep trying and failing be harder and harder to actually bring actions and if at the end of the day they no longer are able to file any attacks then guess who wins.
A) man like me got mucked with by BELL CANADA for 10 months, i finally get to the point of lawsuits and they quickly back off and settle EVERYTHING.
B) THIS tells you as it should everyone that us fighters are the ones that make it great , and that YOU ALL should NEVER back DOWN.
i doubt they will let Torrent.is reopen. they got plenty money to spend . they can keep on retry until hit the jack pot .
@11
The one way to fix that is to make the Icelandic legislation change the law regarding copyright.
@1
Absolutely, but people unfortunately doesn’t understand how serious this is… and once they do, it will be too late…
Good to see someone that actually went up against this bs and won this many times.
This tracker has gone through and persevered though an enormous amount of bullshit. It would be a shame not to see it re-open after it triumphs, not only as a beacon of light, but as preverbial middle-finger to these assholes that tried so hard to shut them down.
Good luck guys. Hope to see you up and running again 1 day.
Im downloading child pr0n from thepiratebay. :)
http://www.filthyrichmond.com
is the source, of course, of course
@Sep 28, 2008 at 13:56
how low can you go? think a bit about world around yourself… please? or paycheck is only thing that counts…
Anti Piracy groups, the RIAA and the MPAA are all losers! Stop buying their stupid products altogether than they will wither away!
Jiff
http://www.privacy-center.ru.tc
It’s like HUH>?
These guys are like knocking on the door only to get punched in the face then decides to knock on the door again and again, do you not get it?
There Supreme Court said no thats a NOOOOOOOOOOOO. stop!!!
ICELAND ROCKS
@ http://www.eZee.se
Sadly, you are wrong in your assumption that he is getting any real money. The 900k ISK he’s received so far is only a drop in the ocean compared to the 4M he’s had to spend on legal aid. He will probably never get anything close to the money put out, back from the companies. His personal financial loss will count in the millions of ISK (tens of thousands of USD). For a student that just wanted to do some good for the community and fight the good fight, his rewards will be little more than insults. In the end, even if he wins he’ll be losing.. a lot. :(
hmmmmm…I might play……………if I feel like it……………ok, i feel like it…..
look for the jets to win big………favre returns with monster game………back in hunt, mangenious still coach ….. Remarks from a hot and lonely cougar from __Agelessmate.com__ You may wanna play!
ertytuilktrs dty jietuu s6u etghjsk rtht
gigantic raging boner
wow, congrats to these guys. seriously – job well done! this is a wide awakening to the lobby organizations trying to get rid of bittorrent sites. amazing victory, way to go guys.
ewww@Troll infestation here
To clear up the uncertainness of reopening the tracker, it will almost definitely be reopened but it is unsure if it will be right away or after the whole legal fight is over.
And why do you say that Hyrrokkin, when Svavar himself says he does not know if he wants to ?
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