Torrent website Isohunt shuts down due to court battle

10 years ago | Posted in: Technology | 925 Views

LONG TIME BITTORRENT WEBSITE Isohuntwill shut down, having thrown in the towel in a legal ordeal against the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) film industry cartel.

The website cannot carry on, having dealt with a court battle lasting seven years and facing a potential $110m fine that the MPAA wants the courts to impose.

Isohunt founder Gary Fung has written a short blog post about his decision and spoke toTorrentfreak about it.

“It’s sad to see my baby go. But I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. 10.5 years of Isohunt has been a long journey by any business definition, and forever in internet startup time. It started as a programming hobby in my university days that has become so, so much more,” he said in the blog post.

“It’s been a learning experience beyond what I imagined. I’ve done the best I could pushing the social benefits of Bittorrent and file sharing, the searching and sharing of culture itself, but it’s time for me to move on to new software ideas and projects.”

Talking with the news website Torrentfreak Fung went into more detail, adding that he has preserved the security of his users through the battle.

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful,” he said.

“I think one worry I want to address is at no time have I compromised privacy of any user on Isohunt, in terms of your IP addresses or emails.”

It has been a long fight. In 2006 Fung was adamant that Isohunt did not deserve the reputation that it was being given.

He said, “The MPAA’s allegation that our service is for the sole purpose of helping copyrightinfringement of their movies is plainly wrong.”

The MPAA is happy at the news of Isohunt’s imminent closure, and in its statement it said that it would be glad to see the end of a service with over 40 million peers.

“Today’s settlement is a major step forward in realizing the enormous potential of the internetas a platform for legitimate commerce and innovation,” said former US Senator Chris Dodd, chairman and CEO of the MPAA.

“It also sends a strong message that those who build businesses around encouraging, enabling, and helping others to commit copyright infringement are themselves infringers, and will be held accountable for their illegal actions.” µ

source: rawstory

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