Andre Yoskowitz
25 Dec 2009 18:54
A U.S. federal court has ruled against torrent indexer isoHunt today, ruling the site is guilty of inducing copyright infringement. Claiming the case is so similar to that of Napster and Grokster in the 1990s, the case will not get a full trial and was given summary judgment.
The case, which began in 2006 when Columbia, Disney, Tristar, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal and Warner Bros issued a complaint against the site and owner Gary Fung, seems to be finally over, with the site seemingly going the way of Mininova, which removed all illegal torrents in November, at least in the U.S. It should continue to run full steam in Canada.
The ruling says Fung ran the site with “purposeful, culpable expression and conduct, aimed at promoting infringing uses of the websites.”
In their case, the defendants pointed out many cases in which users of the site were encouraged to pirate, including torrent categories such as "top 20 movies," or the ‘Box Office Movies’ section of the site which encouraged users to upload the top 20 highest-grossing movies of all time.
Staff and moderators of the site's official forum were also shown giving advice on how to download copyright films, how to rip DVDs, and how to use PeerGuardian to block IP addresses from the MPAA and other groups.