Permanent Injunction Closes QuebecTorrent
Written by enigmax on July 11, 2008The battle to keep QuebecTorrent open against a legal attack by the CRIA and 30 other media organizations, is over. The site has complied with a permanent injunction handed down by the Superior Court of Quebec. The recording industry has dropped its claim for $200,000 damages.
QuebecTorrent, the Canadian-based BitTorrent tracker has lost its legal battle against the Canadian recording industry.
Targeted in 2007, they faced the combined resources of the CRIA, ADISQ and APFTQ (the TV and movie companies) - and CIRPA. In all, 31 organizations went after QuebecTorrent, demanding $200,000 in punitive damages.
They ordered that the admin, Sébastien Brûlotte, aka ‘Doditz’, should close the site and never again engage in any similar activity, and post a message clearly indicating the closure of the site. At the time, Doditz didn’t comply. The full details of the case are available in an interview we conducted back in January.
However, the pressure became too great and on July 9th QuebecTorrent was forced to close after it received a permanent injunction from the Superior Court of Quebec. The judgment reads:
ORDER the defendants Sébastien Brûlotte and Quebectorrent.com inc., their officers, administrators, employees, representatives, mandator as well as any person acting directly or indirectly on their behalf or according to their instructions, as well as to any person informed of the present injunction to immediately close the torrents on these website Quebectorrent and to refrain from being involved in any website using the bittorrent technology, peer to peer, or any other technology allowing the download of any work protected by copyright.
QuebecTorrents had indicated all along that they intended to fight the recording industry but in the end, their combined resources proved to be too much. Solange Drouin, the managing director of ADISQ explains:
“We had envisaged three days of lawsuit, but they indicated last week to us that they would comply with the demands. In return, we agreed to drop the claim for $200,000 in damages brought against the site and its administrator.”
Indicating that she hopes the shutdown has an effect on other current and potential torrent site admins he goes on: “We waited to see the result of this first lawsuit. We hope that this result will have a dissuasive effect. If it is not the case, it is possible that we will engage in actions against similar sites.”
Doditz briefly told TorrentFreak: “I just wanna say thanks to all the people who supported the cause and me all along.”
This post will be updated shortly with an exclusive message to the BitTorrent community from Doditz.
Stay tuned.
Previously: G8 Pushes Anti-Piracy Trade Agreement
Next: Comcast Ordered to Stop BitTorrent Traffic Interference
28 Responses
Soooo, the hydra will soon pop some new heads for canadian bites I guess…
People are talking -
- and people are leaving.
America could turn into martial law tomorrow and many of us wouldn’t be surprised one bit. Most of us would continue licking our XBOXes and WIIs, posting on our blogs, and paying taxes to the dictatorship, whining about where the money goes while continuing to fund the source of their frustration.
Unmanned drones flying over forests looking for marijuana (didn’t George Washington say something about spreading the hemp seed? Yes, hemp and marijuana differences, I know),
helicopters with FLIR gazing at infrared screens,
all in an effort to prevent citizens from growing their own medicine.
The street price of marijuana stays up high, rather than plummeting through legalization to the price of green tea, drug lords giggling along with corrupt law enforcement, people paying and begging their doctors for less effective, addictive pills to pop,
No coffins being shown on American TV news, it’s all about distraction,
Two parties anally stuffed by Corporations and Big Pharma,
Non violent drug offenders and file sharers thrown into prison to be anally raped by gang members and introduced into the possibility of dying from AIDS,
Katrina opened the eyes of many around the world,
The television is the worst drug of them all, and it’s legal,
People programmed to obey,
Hallucinogenic plants demonized (war on perception, control the media control the mind), medical studies of these plants eliminated for years,
(Read Food of the Gods by Terence Mckenna)
Marijuana still Schedule I with no medicinal benefit which is a lie, while Foxglove and Datura are legal and both could easily kill you if misused,
People are moving OUT of America, they are tired of the brainwashing, “If you don’t like it here leave” “No, I’ll stay and make a difference” doesn’t matter any more, the system in America refuses change.
When you love your country but everyone around you is asleep and no one wants to participate in their local government because they are all too busy working to pay taxes and ever rising costs on everything in a fake economy, when and where does change happen?
The NL is looking more and more attractive every day.
Learn a second language and investigate your options, or get involved in your local government and work for change. If you value your privacy use Tor , GPG with the enigmail plugin add-on for Thunderbird, Truecrypt and an open source operating system like Ubuntu Linux .
Blame Canada!
Wow. This has nothing to do with America. Canadian companies sued a Canadian criminal. Paranoia runs wild.
I won’t use my real name. As i am an avid torrent user. Unfortunatly this little set back will never stop the file sharing community. I believe the heads in the government try too hard. So they shut down popular sites like torrentspy and quebectorrent. Big flippin’ deal. You still have p2p like limewire and the likes. And a million more torrent sites that are growing everyday.
Don’t get me wrong though.
If i like something , like a movie or a new album , i will purchase it.
What they are trying to do it pointless and futile.
-Cheers
Neo something something something.
Read the book Little Brother, took me some time to realise that we are not at (but near, ever so near) to that stage:
http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/
(Creative Commons Non-Commercial)
Sad, but because they are so organized and we are not everyone had doubts they could do it… thumbs up for putting a good fight till the last possible moment though.
Never used the site but RIP.
Cheers!
eZee.se
Darn, now there’s no way to find torrents! Have to search Google to find another tracker. Isohunt now uses site encryption.
Thats a very bad news for QuebecTorrent… i hope this guy survive, he tried a lot to help the canadian torrent community. thanks doditz.
vive le quebec libre ! … eh merde on est plus si libre que ca …
Holly Crap, QuebecTorrent wasn’t a good tracker also. let them go.
Not good news that hes’ gone but still it wasn’t worth for anti piracy to fight with a small tracker LoL
I though we were still free here in Quebec :(
Anyway even if they kill the bittorent technology they can’t stop sharing we will always find a way to share !
From the (translated) injunction: “refrain from being involved in any website using the bittorrent technology, peer to peer, or any other technology allowing the download of any work protected by copyright.” Uh, so this bans him from using the Internet and any medium capable of storing data? Once again the courts show that they have no idea what they are talking about and associate any bittorrent activity with p2p. I’m just sad it’s happening in Québec now.
> “Wow. This has nothing to do with America. Canadian companies sued a Canadian criminal. Paranoia runs wild.”
He was not convicted of a crime, was he?
He was threatened with lawsuits; that’s civil, not criminal.
@Anonymous, if they committed no illegal actions, what was the basis of the lawsuits? Lawsuits are often used to bring a halt to criminal activity.
I wonder if the Canadian authorities could close down a Canadian tracker for not offering its services in both official languages…
:P
lol
The injonction clearly states doditz cannot publicly comment this matter so you folks are putting him in danger.
Also, Solange is a female name in french … “she goes on”!
It doesn’t change much as there are still plenty more site from Qc hosted outside occidental countries. doditz should have hosted its own offshore from the beginning.
It’s only the first site to be closed down, more will follow. http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/07/11/qc-quebectorrent0711.html
Another good site is gone.
Thats terrible!
Hopefully MORE will open!
Canada is getting worse and more close minded then ever… a shame I live there.
They may order closing, but how can they order to stop working on any website working with BitTorrent? It’s like “Hey,you posted a bad image through HTTP, so no web browsing for you forever!”.
“to refrain from being involved in any website using the bittorrent technology, peer to peer, or any other technology allowing the download of any work protected by copyright.”
Unfortunately, this statement could effectively stop him from even browsing the internet, since http is another technology that can be used to download something that is copyright.
Also, there are many sites that have a copyright home page, such as eBay. Remember that an internet browser HAS to download the images, tags and text to your PC for it to work.
Whoever wrote that statement did not put in any proviso for the way the Internet operates, which is basically millions of computers all filesharing with each other (http is still filesharing).
Whoever wrote the statement is a fucking moron and the people prosecuting are fucking idiots. The Surpeme Court of Canada, our politicians, our prime minister and the Supreme Court of quebec are all fucking morons to. Why? Because they enjoy sucking the long arm of the American cock influence and waivering on Canadian solidarity and rights.
BLAME AMERICA!
I’m just so sick of this shit, I won’t have my rights trampled on.
No fucking way.
Great report, but Solange Drouin is a woman, not a man. Please correct the pronouns (she, instead of he):
“Solange Drouin, the managing director of ADISQ explains:
“We had envisaged [...] ”
Indicating that he hopes the shutdown has an effect on other current and potential torrent site admins he goes on”
Thanks for a great report.
Guys,
this isn’t about some site being shut down; this is about the legal precedent.
For the first time in Canadian history, a person has sued (NOT EVEN GAD-DAMNED PUNISHED/SENTENCED !!!!!!) for an act (bitTorrent) that is completely legal in the country.
This is just fodder for the ‘tard dinosaur-mafIAA to shut down other legal bitTorrent sites, and pass legislation to make bitTorrent ACTUALLY illegal.
And yah, I said legal. A JUDGE ruled its not legal. But by the LAWS of Canada, it IS legal. I betcha 10 to 1 that judge buys a new $50-100,000 car this year.
And we are still screwed.
This judge had no right, under Canadian law, to do what he did.
If he had tried to pull it off at a national level, he would have been smacked down and laughed at.
He is supposed to judge according to the Law and to Common Law and to Common Sense; in NONE of those was any good taken from one party and wrongfully given to another party.
And yet thanks to this chump, the dinosaur-mafIAA will feel ten feet tall and head straight off after the next guys. CHUMPS!!!
And in the background, we’ve always still got Bill C-61, to be voted on at the end of the summer (check out the UoO’s blog on it at http://www.michaelgeist.ca). Torrents and filesharing may be legal in Canada right now, and you may be protected from your ISP snooping on everything you do in Canada right now, but just give them time to pass that damn bill.
A small-scale bad guy threatens you with a stick and says “give me money”; a multi-national bad guy walks into your country, changes your laws, and says “There. Now its illegal not to give me money. Give me money, or I’m going to have your government fine and jail you.”
It would be funny if it weren’t so sickening.
I am soliciting readers of TorrentFreak.com for support in a pledge to help me in an effort to reform copyright law and hand over power to the common person. I am trying to create an open discussion on what should be done.
Here is the pledge:
http://www.28chan.org/pledge.php
Are they passed the new copyright/download law or not yet? in Canada.
How do they know if you are downloading? How do they catch and fine you?
Cheers mate.
Much respect
A) The guy who went on the drug rant: Seriously? Bittorrent and drugs really are two different, unrelated issues. Ranting on drug legalization in light of a bittorrent ruling is silly.
B) Yeah, that whole ‘prevents them from dealing with any website, etc, that has to do with downloading copyright’ is -really- scetchy. I have trouble believing that one got by anyone’s lawyer. I think you could get a pro-bono lawyer that could fight that one even.
omg, je savais même pas qu’il y avait un site de torrent du et pour le québec :( Avoir su…
If only I would have know there were such a site for Quebec, I would have supported it
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