BitTorrent Site isoHunt.com to Shut Down Following Lawsuit

October 18, 2013 World Screen Top Stories

WASHINGTON: The website isoHunt.com, which is a BitTorrent file-sharing portal, has been forced to shut down after a settlement with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) that will see the site and its owner pay the studios $110 million.

The case began back in 2006, when the MPAA's member studios sued Gary Fung, the operator of isoHunt.com, and his business, isoHunt Web Technologies. In 2009, a judge ruled in favor of the MPAA and issued an injunction permanently prohibiting Fung from hosting, indexing, linking to or otherwise providing access to MPAA member company copyrighted works. Despite the injunction against it, isoHunt.com continued to operate through private servers in Canada. Under the new settlement agreement, the site will shut down by October 23.

“Today’s settlement is a major step forward in realizing the enormous potential of the Internet as a platform for legitimate commerce and innovation,” said Senator Chris Dodd, the 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.”

“Consumers today have more options than ever before to legally access movies and TV shows on the Internet—from Hulu to HBO Go to Vudu to Crackle to UltraViolet and literally hundreds of others,” Dodd added. “Clearing the field of illegal services like isoHunt will help ensure that these legitimate services can grow and thrive, and that consumers have even more choices.”

“The successful outcome of this landmark lawsuit will also will help preserve jobs and protect the tens of thousands of businesses in the creative industries, whose hard work and investments are exploited by sites like isoHunt,” Dodd continued.