As of earlier today, we have disabled access from users in the US to our trackers. This goes for ALL trackers (torrentbox, podtropolis) we run. This is due to the US’s hostility towards P2P technologies, and we feel with our current lawsuit brought by the MPAA, we can no longer ensure your security and privacy in the US. So, if you’re outside the US, you may notice less peers. We encourage you to add other public, unhampered trackers to torrents you post, in addition to Torrentbox and Podtropolis’s trackers.

IsoHunt is not alone in their battle with the MPAA. Last month TorrentSpy, another site named in the MPAA lawsuit blocked access to US users on their site. However, the takedown of IsoHunt’s trackers will have an even bigger effect on the BitTorrent community worldwide, especially because TorrentBox runs one of the biggest public BitTorrent trackers. As mentioned by the Isohunt team, this means that users outside the US will see less peers connected to their torrents which may result in slower download speeds.

The MPAA announced the lawsuit (PDF) against Torrentspy, Torrentbox and Isohunt in February 2006. 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. It now seems that this wasn’t enough to keep the trackers in the air. For now, the websites are still available to US visitors.

The MPAA argues that the sole purpose of these BitTorrent trackers and sites is to share copyrighted content. But they are wrong according to Gary, who said, “We process copyright takedown requests daily, and have done so for hundreds of requests in the past, if not thousands. We work with all copyright owners, and even the RIAA email us routinely. The MPAA is the only organization unwilling to cooperate with us.”

Luckily, quite a lot of torrents are tracked by more that one tracker these days. And if that doesn’t work there’s always DHT. You can read more about how to protect yourself from failing BitTorrent trackers in this article. Long live the hydra!

To be continued. (Thanks Tom)

Thanks to one of our American associates showing this block in action right now

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

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!

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

A couple of weeks later Gary Fung, the owner of Isohunt.com came to the rescue and adopted Podtropolis. At Podtropolis.com we read that it took a while to relaunch the site because the backend required some changes.

One reason for the delay is we had to do a lot of backend revamp, to share the tracker system we have setup at our sister site, TorrentBox.com. All torrents and user accounts has been preserved and reinstated from the point the site went down.

podtropolis.com

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

But it looks like things changed for the better. Gary from Isohunt.com came to the rescue…. At Podtropolis we read:

Well, I just hate good community and nice design going to waste, so here I am, rescuing sites again. I’m Gary, aka. IH at isoHunt.com. As Andrew have said, the site was having financial trouble with keeping up hosting costs, and I happen to have servers for it. So Podtropolis will be joining brethens at isoHunt.com and TorrentBox.com. We are working out the kinks in getting the site back up to its former glory, so stay tuned.

By the way, you can see a CBC interview with gary over here

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Podtropolis is asking for donations to keep up with the constantly increasing demand for iPod torrents.

increasing traffic?

But anyway, they deserve the support. The new design plans are great. Really true to the Ipod philosophy: We can sell everything, if it looks good.

See for yourself!

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.