Judge Tells IsoHunt To Wave Magic Wand; Block All Infringement
from the good-luck-with-that dept
This really is not a huge surprise, but in the IsoHunt case the judge has now ordered site operator Gary Fung to magically stop anyone from infringing (Update: as noted in the comments this is just a "proposed" order, but it seems likely that this is where the judge is heading). It is, as Fung notes, effectively a shut down order. There's no legitimate way for Fung to magically know what content is infringing and what is not, since his system is really no different than a search engine. While the original ruling concerned a few of Fung's actions that the judge claimed were inducing, it looks like the judge won't even give Fung a chance to try to set up a non-inducing search engine.There are some odd statements in the ruling, including the judge claiming:
"It is axiomatic that the availability of free infringing copies of plaintiffs' works through defendants' websites irreparably undermines the growing legitimate market for consumers to purchase access to the same works,"There's just one (big) problem with that. It is not at all axiomatic. We've seen many content creators embrace file sharing as part of a legitimate market, and in doing so, make more money. So the judge is claiming something that is a universal truth that is false. That seems quite troubling.
Separately, the ruling seems to suggest that a keyword filter might stop the infringement. That takes me back. Judge Patel in the original Napster case made the same demand, and it was a disaster, because a keyword filter is useless.
But the bigger issue is that the judge seems to have gone way beyond what the law actually says and allows in this situation. The site can be barred for inducing infringement, but that doesn't mean a site automatically must block anything that might be infringing.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Companies: isohunt
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
NewzBin handed a similar fate
This whole inducement/secondary liability business is such a crock.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: NewzBin handed a similar fate
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
To only way to be absolutely sure its infringing is to download it and watch or listen to it ... Big OLE GRIN
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
They say P2P spreads viruses/malware. Do people download files called such n such virus?
You have no way of knowing what you have until you have completed the download.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
What spreads these infections isn't the P2P it is people who do not know how to protect their own computers. I have been downloading using P2P for over 6 years and I have not gotten an infection in the last 3-4 years.
IsoHunt Rules
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
EULAs?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: EULAs?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: EULAs?
1, 2... 4? The frak?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: EULAs?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This is sad, how a privilege that is not even owed to some entity that does not even produce or contribute anything meaningful to society forces everyone to destroy, and increase the cost of maintaining, perfectly good technology for no good reason.
No one owes you a copy privilege and i don't want your stupid privilege to interfere with my right to use or provide others with a service (like bit Torrent) and neither do I want your stupid privilege to make it more expensive to use or provide such services. GET OUT OF OUR LIVES AND DIE ALREADY, I want your broken business model to DIE and I want your business to die. Find another job.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
There is nothing hypocritical about this. Perhaps people want to hide their identity to avoid unjustified persecution or punishment (ie: by vandals who might start throwing rocks through your window or by a crazy hit man who might want to hurt someone). In fact, there are some psychos on the Internet, as the news media repeats ad nausea, there are some crazy and dangerous psychos on the Internet. I don't want everyone who reads my comment to know who I am or where I live. Some crazy psycho with nothing better to do might randomly stock people on the Internet. To force people not to be anonymous can be dangerous. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't be allowed to voice my opinion to everyone at large just because I want to avoid the crazy people that might hurt someone.
In fact, it's hypocritical of the news media to constantly protest how many dangerous people are on the Internet and how these dangerous people could come after your children or your family or you and then for the news media to subsequently demand that no one who comments on the Internet be anonymous.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Typical
This is getting to be a really common tactic amongst Big Media supporter judges: "Either do the impossible or shut down, your choice", and I'm getting really sick of it. When a legal system ceases to be fair, it loses it's moral authority. And without moral authority, obeying or participating in it becomes immoral. I think some people need to be reminded of that.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Cable 2.0
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
IF you live in canada wave your hands up
GEE just ban Americans leave them out of the fun
HAHA
at this rate America will have a filter as no websites in foreign lands will be allowed legally to show the Americans anyhting and i'm all for it
when they had enough and want to join in we will
TEAR DOWN THE WALL
TEAR DOWN THE WALL
cause for now its all just another brick in the wall
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: IF you live in canada wave your hands up
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: IF you live in canada wave your hands up
this is aboot freedom of speech
aboot the whole world wanting to download and we cannot anymore!
stupid goof
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This isohunt article is False.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: This isohunt article is False.
What ISOHunt's operator said? No, they did say that and why would they say it if the court didn't rule against them?
What you're saying makes no sense even. You're making absurd comments, why, to make your position look worse than it already does? Seriously, do you think that all of these transcripts were fabricated and that all of these blogs made up such an elaborate lie as to claim that IsoHunt lost when in fact they won? What exactly are you contending?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: This isohunt article is False.
What the judge said is public record, it makes absolutely no sense that these sources would just fabricate something that's public record.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: This isohunt article is False.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I don't get it...
You can't stop it from happening, they're not even making a dent towards slowing it down, so what's the point? They should sit down and think of ways to embrace the technology rather than push people away from it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
"I should clarify with misleading reporting out there that there's no order, only a PROPOSED order. @Mashable sums up the problematic issues we are debating nicely: "It’s understandable that the entertainment industry is going after large torrent sites, as they point to thousands of links to copyright-infringing content.... But so does Google. Is Isohunt’s search box different than Google’s search box? What exactly is Isohunt doing that’s illegal?"
If there's an actual order, we would have announced it and implemented it by now. We haven't."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Axiomatic
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Chill out. We based our report on what Wired was reporting.
There's a nice way to add information to a discussion and an obnoxious way.
Which did you choose?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Alternatives
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
THIS BULLSHIT
A sith lord once said, "the only thing those in power fear the most is .........loosing their power." - Chancellor Palpatine
We are the Jedi and they are the Sith, and the we are loosing.
This goes out to the M.P.A.A., the R.I.A.A., and the C.R.I.A.A., and any other organization bent on the same goals: you guys are just one hunter who is backing a bear (the world) with the teeth and claws of a lion into a corner. and what happens if you back an animal into a corner? Hhhhhhmmmm? something tells me your not going to like the consequences of your actions. but you don't care, anything to keep your grip on the industry and tighten it. boy are you in for a surprise. people are just going to use the creative commons anyway and totally bypass your money grubbin, dumb asses.
THIS GOES OUT TO ALL ARTISTS: CREATE YOUR OWN WEBSITE AND CONTENT UNDER CREATIVE COMMONS, AND FINISH OR GET OUT OF YOUR CONTRACTS. I'D BE HAPPY TO PAY FOR YOUR STUFF (EVEN FULL PRICE)AS LONG AS I'M NOT PAYING THE MAJOR COMPANIES. I DO BELIEVE THAT MOST PEOPLE ACROSS THE WORLD FEEL THE SAME.
THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
hm
It may sound like a form of welfare. That's okay in my book. I think the system is working for the studios as is. They are still making record profits. Maybe they could squeeze a few more dollars out of people already teetering on the socioeconomic edge? Okay. Maybe it's not perfect, but it's certainly *not* actionable in my opinion.
I think there are a lot of hard to pin down benefits of their content being freely accessible to certain segments of the population. It generates word of mouth buzz or panning. It may, in effect, increase revenues by merchandising of music/films, and possibly inspiring some people to buy special editions or just regular editions even of the content. People who would not otherwise buy.
Also I think what's really going on with filesharing is that it's locally correcting in the movie and music markets for global (here I mean the entire market not Earth) socioeconomic injustices.
Secondarily, if it were more clear who people were compensating when they bought movies/music, I think that would help. Everyone wants to pay creators for their content if they enjoy it. But no one wants to pay essentially "distributors" exorbitant mark ups because they were essentially able to package and ship something to a store because there's no special labor there.
With such an efficient distribution technology as filesharing, the market can be a lot more efficient by cutting out the middle man. Of course, the middle man then loses his chunk of the pie. To that I say, do something else.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Alternatives.
Second of all, if they record studios would pull their heads out of their asses long enough to look for a better way to make money off of this than suing kids they'd do a lot better.
What they should do is be the first ones to upload a good version of the torrent. Dump in some advertisements for which they charge revenue by the leecher count or whatever, and actually make money off of the damn thing. Sure someone will torrent it, rip out the adverts then re-up it but if the studio's material was up first and has the most seeders a lot of us will still download that.
I like the idea of cutting out the middleman, those blood-sucking cunts are half the reason I torrent in the first place. The other half is I'm a starving college student who eats peanut butter off a spoon for dinner.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I love this
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Turn $6 into $36,000
As seen on OPRAH WINFREY
PAYPAL VERIFIES THAT THIS $6 INVESTMENT IS 100% LEGAL AND IS A BIG HIT THIS YEAR.
You send $1.00 through PayPal to each of the emails stated in the article. You then place your own email address in the bottom of the list at No.6, and post the article in at least 200 Newsgroups. (There are thousands)
REQUIREMENTS:
1) An Email address
2) A PayPal account (It's free to sign up for PayPal)
3) $6.00
You must have a verified PayPal account. Be sure to sign up for a free PREMIER or BUSINESS account (and not just a PERSONAL account)
Sending money...In the "Category" field select "Service" (Keeping it legal);
Click Continue;
In the "Subject" field type "EMAIL LIST", and in the "NOTE" field enter "PLEASE PUT ME ON YOUR EMAIL LIST".
New 2010 PayPal accounts to send $1.00 to:
(1)jlook222 @ yahoo.com
(2)thenyrican2000 @ yahoo.com
(3)drd_81 @ yahoo.com
(4)aytee2020 @ gmail.com
(5)getitgirl2010 @ yahoo.com
(6)sand-shells @ hotmail.com
Now take the 1st email off the list that you see above, move the other addresses up (6 becomes 5, 5 becomes 4, etc...) and add YOUR email address (the one used on the PayPal account) as number 6 on the list.
MAKE SURE THE EMAIL YOU SUPPLY IS EXACTLY AS IT APPEARS IN YOUR PAYPAL ACCOUNT.
Try to keep this article as close to original as possible. Now, post your amended article to at
least 200 newsgroups and message boards.
Play FAIRLY and HONESTLY and this will work!!
Good luck and happy money!!!!
(((Remember, all of this is ABSOLUTELY LEGAL! You are creating an Email List Service Business. If you have any doubts, please refer to Title 18 Sec. 1302 & 1241 of the United States Postal laws)))
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I went to isohunt, because I wanted to find a copy to download to replace my music, and that is when I found the "lite" version.
I refuse to pay any company more money to buy another copy of my CD when I already have the rights to listen to that content from my initial purchase.
I bet I could very easily find thousands (if not more) people who would show up in court to say that they have owned an irreparably damaged CD, due to the quality of the workmanship and materials used to make it.. at the very least, replacement copies, which can be downloaded online, should be available by the vendors.
CD's are made to be taken out of protective sleeves, put into players, taken out of players etc.. You don't think putting a CD into a player puts a scratch on it.. setting a hard surface against another hard surface? I don't see any rubber stoppers on my cd tray protecting my CDs when I place them in there.
Do they think we are stupid? Although, some of you reading this may have gone out and purchased a new copy-- did you ever think about that. The MPAA and other big media vendors are white collar criminals, and you support them time and time again with your subsequent purchases of the same thing you already own. It is like Disney.. how many times do they need to re-relase the same ancient movie? "Oh, we've added this first hand commentary, and therefore you are buying the rights to this new content in addition to what you already own." Collector's edition, director's edition, 20th anniversary edition, extorting you out of more money edition!!!! Do their prices take into account whether you already own the right to view the majority of the content you are repurchasing?
The MPAA and other big media vendors are scam artists, pure and simple... well not really so simple, but I think you get my drift.
Anyway, I am going to search by any means to replace my purchased content. "Justice" is blind and stupid sometimes.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
People just need to understand this, all content is software and all devices are hardware an xbox360, DVD player, PC, and Iphone are all computers running software. That's it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
perfomance
best performance and great People just need to understand this, all content is software and all devices are hardware an xbox360, DVD player, PC, and Iphone are all computers running software
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Good luck
[ link to this | view in chronology ]