Court rules against IsoHunt and may be forced to shut down... without a trial!

Filed under: Internet, P2P

One of the largest and most popular BitTorrent search sites, IsoHunt, has just had a court judgment against it, in favor of Columbia Pictures. You're probably wondering what the big deal is: IsoHunt deals with illegal movies... so it's just a matter of time before it gets shut down... right?

Well, kind of! A judge decided that IsoHunt 'induced theft' (i.e. copyright infringement), and thus it could be shut down without a trial. This is what's known as a 'summary judgment' in legal terms: when something is so obviously illegal (or legal) as to not require a trial, a summary judgment can be issued. In this case, the judge ruled that IsoHunt is similar enough to Napster and Grokster, and they were found illegal, and thus summarily issued a judgment -- just like that!

"The material facts supporting Plaintiffs' [the movie studio's] claims are almost wholly unrebutted," the judge said -- basically, either the IsoHunt lawyers are incompetent or... well... I don't know. Maybe... IsoHunt is actually guilty... gosh. What a horrible thought.

Of course an appeal can be launched -- and we assume, this time around, with a better legal strategy. In general though, few Torrent indexes or trackers return from the brink. If you use IsoHunt -- and I can't believe I'm saying this, because IsoHunt is awesome -- you should probably start looking for an alternative.

[via Michael Geist (includes a link to the summary judgment itself, if you're interested)]

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Court rules against IsoHunt and may be forced to shut down... without a trial! originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 26 Dec 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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