ISOHunt Gets Free Publicity From MPAA And RIAA

from the free-promotion dept

Wed, Jan 17th 2007 11:53am — Mike Masnick

Isn't there a word for doing the same thing over and over again, even when it creates the opposite results of what you intend? Whatever it is, it appears that the entertainment industry fits that description. The RIAA and MPAA keep claiming significant blows against unauthorized file sharing, but each time they get such a significant blow, the end result seems to be that whatever it is they "stopped" comes back in a much bigger form. Remember when they "shut down" Pirate Bay and were all excited about what a big deal it was? It took a day or so for the Pirate Bay to come back online, and all of the publicity from the shut down made it much, much, much bigger than before, as plenty of people who had never heard of it were then aware of it. Soon after they "shut down" the Pirate Bay, they claimed that ISOHunt was the next target for their unique publicity engine. It appears that they've now succeeded. They convinced ISOHunt's ISP to take them down leading to a bunch of stories about the site (which is merely a search engine and isn't hosting any infringing files on its own). Of course, it only took a few hours for ISOHunt to come back up, and we're sure they're enjoying quite the traffic boost from the entertainment industry's free promotional effort of their work.

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36 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jan 2007 @ 12:03pm

1.) Fire marketing department

2.) Add MPAA/RIAA annoying but legal service to product

3.) Profit more with improved margins!
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Neil, 17 Jan 2007 @ 12:11pm

File sharing if virtually unstoppable. But it's hilarious when they try to stop it.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jan 2007 @ 12:15pm

this does seem real similar to the pirate bay situation, you'd think they would learn
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Rose, 17 Jan 2007 @ 12:15pm

...and the word is
Insanity!
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PhysicsGuy, 17 Jan 2007 @ 12:21pm

ummm
isohunt's back up?!?!? what's the url... isohunt.com still leads to the takedown notice... any info on the current url would be greatly appreciated as i need to dl the office tonight and, while i could just google it (gasp, google returns as many if not more torrents than isohunt) i'd rather give my traffic to isohunt in support (they are the best torrent search hands down).
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PhysicsGuy, 17 Jan 2007 @ 12:43pm

Of course, it only took a few hours for ISOHunt to come back up, and we're sure they're enjoying quite the traffic boost from the entertainment industry's free promotional effort of their work.

after some searching i can say that isohunt's NOT back up... :P way to lie mike... a few hours? they got taken down yesterday, the first notice says it'll be a day (today) and the last notice says that they're still working on it? a few hours? hardly :P (but it should be back up today)
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PhysicsGuy, 17 Jan 2007 @ 1:13pm

and the newest update on the site says it'll be back up tomorrow. :P if only it was really just a few hours :P
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woot, 17 Jan 2007 @ 1:16pm

like trying to hold back the ocean with a broom.
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Fate, 17 Jan 2007 @ 1:31pm

Re: ummm
isohunt has a notice saying it will be back up tomorrow.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jan 2007 @ 1:33pm

RIAA ,a recording industry trade group paid for by Geffen Records, Island Records, Universal Music Group, Concord Records, EMI Recorded Music, SONY BMG, Buena Vista Music, Curb Records, RCA Music Group, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, The Atlantic Group, Koch Entertainment, Wind-up Records, Virgin Records America, Tommy Boy Records, Capitol Records

MPAA ,a film industry trade group paid for by the likes of Sony, Universal, Buena Vista, Paramount, and Warner Bros..

Hmmm, some of the evil empire pays for both MAFIAA groups, RIAA and MPAA!
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wickedglass, 17 Jan 2007 @ 2:28pm

"Isn't there a word for doing the same thing over and over again, even when it creates the opposite results of what you intend?"

Yeah, its called the War on Terror
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Name, 17 Jan 2007 @ 2:32pm

Big fish eat the little ones?
Speaking of topics that cause uproar, or hate, not that that's what anyone is trying to do. The record companies are kind of like the middleman, correct? They provide services, as well as the RIAA and MPAA, if the money skips them we might be relating them to the Ottoman Empire...upset about technically not being required. Maybe this is their way of investing in other areas in case theirs falls through, not stupid, although might look "bad."
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wolff000, 17 Jan 2007 @ 2:42pm

Why Would They Stop?
They have proven beyond a shadow of doubt thet they will refuse to let go of an out dated busniess model that doesn't work in todays society. So what makes anyone think they will stop with these "shut downs" and C&D letters? These companies are literally looking death ion the face and they aren't going to go silently. Of course to skirt death would only require some open mindedness and innovation. if they would rather kick and scream while the reaper drags them to oblivion it is fine by me. well over half the stuff they make these days is void of any entertainment value anyway.
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Jon, 17 Jan 2007 @ 3:15pm

Re: War on Terror
Who said the truth wasn't funny?
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WAA WAA WAA, 17 Jan 2007 @ 3:21pm

Its easier to complain about file sharing then be creative and find new ways of making a buck. There are so many movies and lots music that are horrible and done deserve to be in theaters or bands that cant play live but make millions because they are backed by such large companies.

Hopefully file sharing will become so popular it will filter the talentless musicians and movie producers that only make it because large companies force it down everyones throat. Maybe then you wont hear the same songs played over and over on the radio by a chick who needs to lipsinc cause she cant sing live. movie about a guy becoming a dog or a teenie bopper movie with the plot revolving around a simple misunderstanding.

People with real talent always find a way to make it like selling their music to comericals ,tv shows ,video games, playing live theres tons of things to do.

Unless a movie is worth 10 bucks to see it on a big screen im downloading it.

I'm tired of hearing talentless artist cry how people are ripping off their music but yet they are living in million dollar homes getting nose jobs and bigger fun bags.

No worries though cause in the near future movies and music will be free and all these big breasted no talent artists will be forced into the porn industry unless they have no talent in that department too.
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Randizzle, 17 Jan 2007 @ 3:22pm

Simple
Duh everyone...the riaa and mpaa secretly own both pirate bay and isohunt, and probably others! They use the sites as covert sting operations to collect ip addresses and file download data so in the future they can be like,

"Yo judge! See here...all of these different ip's have been downloading all of these different files! With some simple algebra that we've taken the liberty to do, you can see that they've downloaded over eleventy billion billion zillion dollars worth of movies and music! Make file-sharing illegal! Do it! Just do it!"

BTW I patented that whole scenario, so if it actually happens, I'm suing.
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BobU, 17 Jan 2007 @ 3:25pm

Re: ummm
Ever find that ISOHunt address?
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tom, 17 Jan 2007 @ 3:30pm

that goes with everything in capitalism... they provide a problem and a solution and they proffit from it...
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PhysicsGuy, 17 Jan 2007 @ 3:41pm

Re: Re: ummm
isohunt isn't back up until (hopefully) tomorrow or so, they're transferring all their data over to their isp now. it's still isohunt.com ... mike was lying about them being back up in hours, unless by a website being back up he means they've simply found another isp and have yet to actually put the page back up yet....
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G. H. Linux, 17 Jan 2007 @ 4:07pm

Insanity
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results

yea...that does sum the RIAA/MPAA pretty well...
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Jones, 17 Jan 2007 @ 4:37pm

Sorry
But anyone who brings up the war on terror in a piracy thread needs to do this world a favor and go off themselves.

Jesus, do you democrats ever just shut up and live your lives, or are you so concerned with what other people do that you can't have a moment of peace? I think it's the latter...
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wickedglass, 17 Jan 2007 @ 4:43pm

Re: Sorry
first off, you obviously have never heard of sarcasm.

"Jesus, do you democrats ever just shut up and live your lives"

Wow. Amazing. No comment needed here, you are digging your own grave just fine.

"or are you so concerned with what other people do that you can't have a moment of peace?"

Yes, I am concerned about what other people do. I don't live in a self-contained bubble city.

"I think it's the latter..."

Former/latter does not work here, you don't present two clearly defined, differing positions.
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wickedglass, 17 Jan 2007 @ 4:46pm

Furthermore, the war on terror/drugs/piracy has a common thread; an organization that continues to fight a losing battle when all common sense and logic dictate that an alternate strategy would be far more effective.
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|333173|3|_||3, 17 Jan 2007 @ 4:55pm

Torrent search tools
THere is a free torrent search tool made by MessiahAndrw (google for him, I can't remember where he posted it), which searches three major torrent search engines and aggregates the results as links. It does require you to download a program to use it, but I am pretty sure it is safe since I have seen him use it on many occasions on his own computer. I may post a URL if I find it.
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PhysicsGuy, 17 Jan 2007 @ 5:18pm

Re: Insanity
mr. einstein had a very flawed definition of insanity, there are plenty of instances in which his definition crumbles. for example, would you consider someone training for a timed mile run to be insane? they are, after all, running around in a circle day after day expecting to get different results from the act of repeating the same thing over and over.
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Steak, 17 Jan 2007 @ 6:06pm

eh tu?
I think the author of this article is being a bit preemptive. As of 21:05 EST on 17 Jan 2007, isohunt is all but down save for a few status updates, and seems to be a ways away from being fully operational.
Go isohunt! Woe to author.
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ScytheNoire, 17 Jan 2007 @ 8:22pm

Sue Google
I just found all sorts of illegal stuff to download with Google. Therefore, Google must also be a file-sharing site and the MPAA and RIAA should sue Google.
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billy, 18 Jan 2007 @ 5:20am

isoHunt
isoHunt is my hero
it is my selected torrent searcher of choice
i use uTorrent as my torrent program, and of its little in program searches, isoHunt is the best imo (piratebay is on there too, if that floats your boat)
even though the MAFIAA is too stupid to ever admit this, i download movies like this to screen for which ones are worth buying in the store
sicne going out the movies costs lotta munnys these days, i just download them once out on dvd, watch, and if i like it, go out and buy it (gasp!!!)
So, by my downloading, they are making more money than they would otherwise (in my case)
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G-Man, 18 Jan 2007 @ 9:28am

Re:
oh wickedglass - since you care about what people do - go elsewhere preach to some other democrats that care to discuss with you - no one here is interested.
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heh, 18 Jan 2007 @ 3:33pm

Technically the site is up just a status page, the application isnt
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Henry Herron, 18 Jan 2007 @ 5:39pm

ISOHunt
Never heart of it... Until now. :) Thanks MPAA/RIAA
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zrdb, 19 Jan 2007 @ 9:00am

RIAA and the MPAA-evil, evil!
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Jonny Mnemonic, 19 Jan 2007 @ 1:55pm

Perhaps everything is cyclical
Once upon a time, the creators of sociologically important works of art starved, or were paid by wealthy patrons who were then able to horde the art, and trade works of art with other members of the wealthy elite with similar tastes and inclinations. I see the possibility of us returning to those days.

Let's say copyright infringement becomes really widespread, and dominates music, film, photography and literature -- we're clearly on the way to that point now. While P2P sharing and such helps the no-name aspiring artists, it does little for the big names. But once an artist HAS a big name (say, Stephen King), it may become more financially lucrative, when he creates a new work, to sell it, not to the masses, but as a one-of-a-kind to the highest bidder. (Who could then duplicate it, or hoard it to trade with other wealthy people, or whatever.) So, I have no fear that artists, at least those with large amounts of talent, will end up starving. They certainly will not. What might happen though is that the *common man* may lose access to an increasingly large amount of art. After all, you CAN'T copy a work of art for which there exists only one, and over which the artist has complete control. It is only after it goes to distribution that art is routinely and widely copied. By reverting back to the medieval wealthy-patron-sponsorship, established big name artists could simply bypass the common man completely.

Paul Atreides said in Dune (and I paraphrase), "He who can destroy a thing has the ultimate power over that thing." Obviously, when there exists but one copy of a particular work, he who possesses that sole copy has the ultimate control. The artists have that power, and should they ever realize it and band together, there's nothing the common man could do about that.

Another thing artists could do, and again this works only very well for big names, is to pre-sell their work. For example, Eminem (or whoever) creates a new album. He has the sole copy of it. He makes a lower-grade version of it, 96k mps, 128k mp3, whatever, and releases THAT freely. Everyone copies it, everyone loves it, but they want a high-quality version. The catch is, *nobody* gets a quality version until AND UNLESS he makes X dollars in advance, with each pre-sold copy costing Y dollars. He could fiddle some with X and Y to see what numbers produce the most money, but the point is, that particular work remains unpirateable UNTIL he makes that much money. No P2P-ing a copy, no buying a CD and making copies for friends, no trading external HDs, all irrelevant, because there's only one high quality version of that work in existence, until his minimum number of pre-sales has been achieved. If that never happens, he could revise X and Y, or auction it off to a wealthy person, or just destroy it and deprive human society of that particular work. His work, his property, his call, not a thing anyone could do or say about that.

The next few years will be interesting, that's for sure!
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viewfromthenorth, 23 Jan 2007 @ 4:34pm

same with all the big guys
ever notice how company ''x'' says "we lost 20 million dollars last quarter".. then when you actually look..the made 40 million last quarter...but the quarter before they made 60 million...so in thier mind they lost 20 million...lol no you didn't lose 20 million..you made 20 million less..in no way is that a loss
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david, 31 Jul 2007 @ 3:39am

who will stop this
the wheel keeps turning but nothing is changing. Why dont they (the RIAA and MPAA) just stop and take a few steps back and see if there is a way they can make money FROM filesharers other than suing them and making them look bad in the public eye. Cant we all just get along.
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Aamir, 9 Feb 2009 @ 7:04pm

Payback?
In a shocking turn of the tables this September, the Isohunt webmaster is counter-suing the Canadian music industry. He is claiming that previous copyright violation suits against him were unfounded, and that he is entitled to have his legal expenses recovered.

Read the story here:
http://isohunt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=141381

If you can't visit the link, you might have to sign up on the website. If you do, don't forgot to check out the FORUMS! (for help on how to get started with torrents)
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