isoHUNT sues record labels’ CRIA
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Canadian BitTorrent and P2P search engine isoHunt has become the first such site to go from defense to attack in the online file-sharing wars.
In a landmark case, it’s suing Canadian RIAA clone the CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association of America), asking a court in British Columbia to make the first ruling on whether or not BitTorrent search engines should be held liable for .torrent files that might link to copyrighted data.
In May 2008, the CRIA launched a Cease and Desist order at isoHunt, demanding founder Gary Fung (right) shut the site down, says TorrentFreak, going on, “If Fung didn’t comply, the CRIA said it would pursue legal action, and demand $20,000 for each sound recording the site has infringed.”
But, the story continues, “Fung has pointed out that, like most other BitTorrent sites, isoHunt has a Copyright Policy, and takes down .torrent files when they receive an appropriate request. The CRIA simply ignored this, even though they have sent correct takedown notices to isoHunt before (and isoHunt complied), and continued to threaten with legal action.
“As an act of self-defense, isoHunt has decided to sue the CRIA instead”.
‘No control over the files’
Yesterday, Fung asked the Court of British Columbia to rule isoHunt and sister sites Torrentbox and Podtropolis don’t infringe copyright, says the story, quoting Fung as declaring »»»
This is our preemptive strike with a narrowly defined petition for Declaratory Relief that we do not infringe, in anticipation they are going to file their own lawsuit that we do infringe (their copyright). Our petition summarizes BitTorrent technology, its open nature and a whole ecosystem of websites and operators that has developed around it, that CRIA does not own copyright to all files distributed over BitTorrent or on isoHunt websites, and we seek legal validation that we can continue to innovate within this emerging BitTorrent ecosystem on the Internet.
Think of this as a follow up to the QuebecTorrent case. We intend to take this all the way up to the Canadian Supreme Court unless CRIA settles with us out of court in any reasonable way, Fung said There are some interesting parties in Canada in our camp I`m not disclosing yet, this is going to make an interesting case and the most important copyright case in Canada currently.”
Among other things, “isoHunt argues that they are just a search engine, like Google, and that they have no control over the files they find elsewhere on the web,” says TorrentFreak, adding:
“The site is indexing other BitTorrent trackers and indexers, without human intervention, and allows its users to find content that is scattered across the web.”
‘End of online freedom of speech in Canada’
In another landmark first-of-its-kind case centering on hyperlinks, p2pnet is waiting for a BC court to rule on whether or not linking to a site containing allegedly defamatory material constitutes publication of the material and, in effect, defamation by default.
Vancouver businesman Wayne Crookes claims p2pnet defamed him when it linked to sites containing articles which, well, defamed him, he says.
“If he wins, it`ll be quite literally the end of online freedom of speech in Canada,” said the story.
“Without hyperlinks, the World Wide Web would be nothing but a sterile series of computers.”
TorrentFreak – isoHunt Sues the CRIA to Legalize BitTorrent Sites, September 5, 2008
p2pnet – Wayne Crookes v p2pnet: update, August 30, 2008
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September 6th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Since ALL search engines (not just the ones specifically geared to torrents) have the capability to turn up links to pirated works or defamatory material, it’s only logical that the MAFIAA (or people like Whiney Crookes) should be trying to take Google down!
After all, why waste time and money going after all the smaller sites, if they really have a legitimate point behind what they’re doing?
September 6th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
because goolge is secretly in bed with cia and fbi and not even the maffia’s have power over them YET
September 6th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Just to let you know, it is NOT called the ‘Canadian Recording Industry Association of America’…it is just called: “Canadian Recording Industry Association”; but being an American you think everything centres around you!
September 6th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
being canadain we call it exactly how we see it
so Canadian Recording Industry Association of America
would be appropriate, it is after all run by a sneezy wild mouthed american who has absolutely nothing good to say about canada expcept when he picks up the pay check he made off artists in canada he doesn’t pay.
This is why the CMCC was formed as well for those that wish to know and why SAC proposed a 5$ fee on net accounts that the CRIA denounces and everyone i talked to though the idea was WICKED
see facebook group of fair copyright for canada for a counter proposal to SAC
September 6th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Whoa, someone is in desperate need of a sense of humor. “Canadian Recording Industry Association of America” is just a joke. Jon Newton is Canadian, as is this site. He often pokes fun at the CRIA, for obvious reasons. Does it ever get old? Never lol! 8-p
The coming drama is going to be very interesting to watch and I think isoHunt has a strong case. Same in regards to Jon’s case regarding hyperlinking. Only a complete fool who is incapable of any kind of logical thought would think otherwise.
September 6th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Good luck to him and his fight with the CRIA. I just hope the judge or jury is at least knowledgeable in this area.
September 7th, 2008 at 9:35 am
The ability to search and hyperlink on the internet is the greatest power it has. Without it, the internet dies. Period. The only thing left would be corporations and business that can afford the adverts to get indexed by search engines.
Should this landmark ruling (either of them) make it so that the litigious (cash-grabbing) can start suing who they like, you can guarantee there is going to be a backlash by big business, since they will be the ones first targeted, since they have the money.
A simple “We are not responsible for linked content” should suffice, no matter what the linked content is.
September 7th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
” The ability to search and hyperlink on the internet is the greatest power it has. Without it, the internet dies. Period. The only thing left would be corporations and business that can afford the adverts to get indexed by search engines. ”
What makes you think that this isn’t the ultimate goal if corporation and government ?
It eliminates that pesky ‘competition’ the corpo’s fear so much.
It eliminates that free flow of information the governments fear so much.
This two sided attack, with government on oneside using child safety and terrorism as a smokescreen,
and the Corporations using the ‘devastation of piracy’ and financial censorship through copyright law
happening at the same time is NOT accidental.
I think there is too much cash on their side for us to win.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:46 am
But the internet is inherently fairly anarchic. There is no point where you can control the whole network. If you don’t like whats going on on the general internet, you just encrypt, shift technologies, or build parallel darknets.