Iceland’s Largest BitTorrent Tracker Wins in Court
Written by Ben Jones on March 28, 2008Whilst one site may have closed its doors thanks to the MPAA, after continuous legal pressure, another has prevailed today in court. Torrent.is has won in court over the Association of film rights-holder in Iceland (SMÁÍS)
The case is a study in classic big business bullying. Like similar cases in the US, SMÁÍS complained to the court about alleged copyright infringement activities on the BitTorrent site, and got a preliminary injunction, blocking the site.
However, justice works swifter in Iceland than it does in the US, and after only 4 months, the case has been to court.
The decision, however, was as surprising as it was swift. Instead of deciding for or against the defendants, the court simply dismissed the case. It is likely, however, that the plaintiffs will appeal the decision to the Icelandic ‘Supreme Court’ (Hæstiréttur).
The verdict, (available in Icelandic here) seems to hinge on the fact that under Icelandic laws, searching for files, or providing accessibility to them, is legal, as long as the files provided by the service are not themselves copyrighted. Torrent files, are not themselves copyrighted, but are instead metadata – data about data- describing copyrighted material, as indeed are reviews.
Svavar Lúthersson, owner of torrents.is, told TorrentFreak in a response to the court ruling “I’m very glad they came to this decision although it came as a surprise for myself and the plaintiffs. I will have to consult with my lawyer as to what this decision means regarding the preliminary injunction but currently it’s still in effect.”
The preliminary injunction seems likely to stay in effect until an appeal is heard, so the site won’t be back up yet. However, the plaintiffs were ordered to pay the court costs of Istorrent ehf (Pltd), the company behind Torrent.is, and its owner Svavar Lúthersson in the amount of 500,000 Icelandic Krona (approx £3320UK / $6700US / €4250 Euro)
SMÁÍS was asked for their comment on the ruling, but their contact email address was automatically bouncing as failed.
Previously: Swedish ISP Refuses To Block The Pirate Bay
Next: BPI Crackdown Planned as BitTorrent Becomes ‘Too Easy’
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very good to read but this is nothing new. everyone knows the legal situation with metadata, it cannot be copyrighted and there is no such offense of technological facilitation
what is interesting is torrent.is called bluff on the MAFIAA bully tactic. these national MAFIAA funded anti-p2p agencies are controlled from the USA and significantly are failing to export their domestic extortion rackets to the civilised world
what is extraordinary is that they are attempting it
Fighting is FTW!
As expected, those who have the will to fight, win.
[quote comment="320845"]The tide seems to be turning in legal circles. We’re winning!!![/quote]
Indeed. The sooner more ISP’s, trackers, forums, and filesharers realize that you don’t back down to these bullying assholes, the sooner the harassment will cease.
Hoist the sails!
Ramming speed!
[quote comment="320690"]Iceland has internet?
I thought it was just igloos n stuff.[/quote]
Yeah but don’t families sleep together in the nude? Talk about bonding!
[quote comment="321063"]Comment to the person who posted post #12,
I would be willing to bet that you are an american. Everyone north of your borders do not live in igloos.[/quote]
What’s wrong with igloos? Kinda cool I think. How do you stop fires and heaters from melting the ice though?
Good to see some courts have a clue how a torrent works… And if an organization tries to sue someone like this and they lose they should have to pay all legal bills!
mario waz ere ‘08
————————
http://www.taxi583.com
Oh my god,, some people are so ignorant that they think just because it’s called Iceland it’s a big chunk of ice. Well it’s not.
Also we do not live in Igloos, our houses are much stronger than those drywall houses in the USA our walls are made of sement so suck it xD
I was a member of the site and it might pop back up in just a few weeks. DONT judge countries before you read about them retards, Greenland is NOT green. Some people seem to have left their common sense in the car.
-Proud Icelander
Another proud icelander here, just to give people some idea of the weather here in Iceland you can go to this site: http://vedur.is/
Not very warm right now, but it’s only early summer here anyways. In our 3 summer months you can expect the heat to be 15-25C at the least. But in winter (dec-apr) it usually snows alot 1 to 3 times a month, mostly melting in between. Which is great for snowmobiles! :D
Just visit us, everybody gets a warm welcome. :)
Woops, you can see the weather for iceland in english here: http://en.vedur.is/
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