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.

On the positive side, the move from the US to Canada is a large upgrade in hardware and bandwidth and it allows them to optimize their infrastructure, and start over with an improved setup. Isohunt received over $1,000 in donations on one single day, money that they will use to pay the bills of their $40,000 server park upgrade.

Isohunt’s sister sites Podtropolis and Torrentbox will also be up and running soon. The next move is to dodge the MPAA, that sued both Isohunt and Torrentbox (PDF) last February.

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.