File Sharing Sites Team Up To Help Promote Indie Films

Thu, Aug 27th 2009 6:09am

Filed Under:
bittorrent, copyright, file sharing, infringement, proof

Companies:
isohunt, mpaa

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Judge In IsoHunt Case Tells MPAA It Needs To Actually Prove Infringement By US Residents

from the well,-that's-a-first dept

This is a first. In the trial that the movie studios have brought against torrent search engine Isohunt, the judge has pushed back on the MPAA's claims, noting that it has failed to show any evidence of actual infringement by US users. In the past, groups like the MPAA and the RIAA have been able to get by without ever proving real infringement, but just by suggesting it must be happening. So this is quite a surprise. It makes the Isohunt case one to watch more seriously. The company may still lose the lawsuit, but at least the judge seems to want to see actual evidence, rather than having Hollywood execs insisting that these sites are killing their business just because they say so.

Culture

Tue, May 5th 2009 3:38am

Filed Under:
bittorrent, record labels, sponsors

Companies:
honor roll music, isohunt

13 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Indie Record Label Sponsors isoHunt BitTorrent Tracker Site

from the more-labels-that-get-it dept

While the major record labels keep insisting that BitTorrent and tracker sites are somehow evil and need to be shut down, more and more indie artists and labels are recognizing that they actually are quite useful promotion and distribution platforms. We've pointed to some in the past, but the latest is a label called Honor Roll Music, which is promoting one of its popular acts by buying ads on isoHunt, the popular BitTorrent site. The ad links to a torrent file so people can easily download the music of the band, Awesome New Republic. Of course, if the major record labels had their way, these creative promotion techniques wouldn't be allowed. Sometimes when we talk about innovative business models, defenders of the old system say that those are fine, but there's no reason to change copyright or stop these lawsuits because those models still work. Yet, this shows how that's not true at all. If the entertainment industry successfully shuts down these sites, it precludes these types of models and promotions. Once again, we see how this is really all about stomping out innovation rather than any legal issue.

(Mis)Uses of Technology

Mon, Nov 10th 2008 4:26am

Filed Under:
bittorrent, china, file sharing, great firewall

Companies:
baidu, isohunt, mininova, pirate bay

5 Comments | Leave a Comment..

China Says: If You Must Infringe On Copyrights, Use Baidu

from the interesting-strategy dept

Many people have noted over the years that with all of the effort that China has put into its Great Firewall, the country hasn't done much of anything to crack down on unauthorized file sharing. In fact, at times, it's almost seemed to encourage it. So some people were a bit surprised to find out that China's censors tried blocking traffic to various well known BitTorrent sites, such as Mininova, isoHunt and The Pirate Bay. However, what may be most interesting is that rather than blocking them outright, it appears that the system just redirects all that traffic to popular Chinese search engine Baidu.

This would be the same Baidu that first became really popular when China shifted all Google traffic to its site, and also the site that stayed popular because it made it easy to download unauthorized music. This would be the same Baidu that was also recently exposed to be fairly complicit in the music downloads it offers, potentially hosting the content itself through a revolving series of ever-changing domains. So, this hardly seems like an attempt by the Chinese government to crack down on unauthorized file sharing -- but an attempt to drive it all to a local company. It looks like the redirects only lasted for a few days, and are no longer in place -- but if the past is any indication, those redirects may come back at any time.

Legal Issues

Mon, Sep 8th 2008 6:34pm

Filed Under:
bittorrent, canada, copyright, declaratory judgment, legality

Companies:
cria, isohunt

24 Comments | Leave a Comment..

isoHunt Seeks Declaratory Judgment In Canada On Legality Of Torrent Tracking

from the one-to-watch dept

You may remember that soon after the entertainment industry provided The Pirate Bay with a ton of free publicity by getting the site (oh so briefly) shut down, its next target was isoHunt, which similarly backfired. While isoHunt is still involved in litigation in the US with the MPAA, up in Canada, the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) has sent it a threatening letter demanding that it shut down. Similar threats have worked against other BitTorrent tracker sites, but isoHunt feels that it's on pretty firm legal grounds, and has filed a lawsuit against the CRIA, asking for a declaratory judgment that its service doesn't infringe on copyrights. It's using a similar explanation as its US lawsuit, noting that it's no different than a search engine. It also points out that when given evidence of infringing content, it takes down the related trackers -- which again should help put the site on pretty strong legal ground. While Canadian copyright law is different than US law, this is an important case to watch.

Legal Issues

Tue, May 6th 2008 4:11am

Filed Under:
bittorrent, search engines, trackers

Companies:
isohunt, mpaa