TorrentFreak

In March, the Ninth Circuit declared that Canada-based BitTorrent search engine isoHunt is not entitled to protection under the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA due to its conduct many years ago. IsoHunt filed a petition for a rehearing before a jury, but yesterday a Ninth Circuit panel unanimously rejected it. Isohunt lawyer Ira Rothken informs TorrentFreak that the right to a jury trial is protected by the constitution and isoHunt is now in the process of requesting a Supreme Court review.

Last month BitTorrent site isoHunt lost its appeal against the MPAA and since then several rightsholders have used this verdict to their advantage in other copyright infringement cases. Google has also been targeted with the ruling in its case against Viacom, and has now asked the court to change its opinion. The Internet giant explains that the verdict against the BitTorrent site is overly broad and endangers the existence of innovative businesses.

Last month BitTorrent site isoHunt lost its appeal against the MPAA, meaning that the site has to continue filtering movie and TV related terms from its search engine. However, isoHunt founder Gary Fung is not giving up just yet and has asked for a jury to decide on the case. In a petition filed this week isoHunt argues that, among other things, the Ninth Circuit decision chills innovation and threatens free speech online.

IsoHunt lost its appeal against the MPAA today, with the Ninth Circuit upholding the 2010 ruling that the website does not qualify for safe harbor under the DMCA. The verdict means that isoHunt will have to keep filtering its search results. For the site’s users all will remain the same, as the site has been filtering keywords on a list provided by the MPAA since the initial injunction was issued.

IsoHunt, one of the oldest BitTorrent sites on the Internet, turns 10 years old today. The site has been fighting Hollywood in court for more than seven years but has not backed down. IsoHunt founder Gary Fung is determined to protect and facilitate people’s right to share culture legitimately. “One would think the people of the Internet are losing to the copyright cartels, but I think different,” he says.

Yesterday one of our old articles on isoHunt was promoted to Reddit’s frontpage. This prompted isoHunt founder Gary Fung to do an AMA(A) If you have any questions to ask, this is the time. isoHunt is currently involved against in two major lawsuits. One in the US where he takes on the MPAA, and another [...]

Following a US court decision BitTorrent search engine isoHunt was ordered to implement a site-wide keyword filter provided by the MPAA. According to isoHunt’s owner the ruling would result in mass censorship of legitimate content, and recent evidence shows that this is indeed the case. The MPAA’s mandatory filter is accidentally censoring thousands of public domain songs and even an independent film which was uploaded by the filmmaker himself.