Technology / Internet
Isohunt resurrected from clone
01 Nov 2013 at 10:15hrs | Views
Isohunt, previously the third most popular BitTorrent search engine, has been resurrected after having been shut down through legal action from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).
Isohunt was forced to shut down last month after a claimed $110m settlement deal with the MPAA.
The notorious 10-year-old BitTorrent indexing site has been brought back online by a group unaffiliated with the original Isohunt and its creator Gary Fung, complete with familiar branding and interface along with about 75% of the data that was pulled from Isohunt before it was shutdown in October.
"IsoHunt can definitely be called a filesharing icon. People got used to it and they don't want to simply let it go. We want those people to feel like being at home while visiting isohunt.to. The main goal is to restore the website with torrents and provide users with the same familiar interface," one of the anonymous members of the new group explained to TorrentFreak.
Some parts of the new Isohunt site remain inactive, including the forum, user profiles and comments, however the rest of the site faithfully mimics the original Isohunt site in form and function.
Fung's decision to close the site and pay the MPAA the huge settlement in mid-October came amid claims that the site "induced the pirating of movies and TV shows". A US federal court had previously issued an injunction against the site in 2009, but Isohunt kept operating via servers in Canada until it was shutdown prematurely in an attempt to thwart a team of people from making a complete backup of the site.
"It's sad to see my baby go. But I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful," Fung wrote on his blog before the shutdown. "10.5 years of isoHunt has been a long journey by any business definition, and forever in Internet startup time."
The MPAA's chairman Chris Dodd said in a statement at the time that the settlement sent "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 actions."
It is unclear what the legal ramifications of the resurrection of Isohunt will have, although the new team will almost certainly have the MPAA to contend with in the near future.
Isohunt was forced to shut down last month after a claimed $110m settlement deal with the MPAA.
The notorious 10-year-old BitTorrent indexing site has been brought back online by a group unaffiliated with the original Isohunt and its creator Gary Fung, complete with familiar branding and interface along with about 75% of the data that was pulled from Isohunt before it was shutdown in October.
"IsoHunt can definitely be called a filesharing icon. People got used to it and they don't want to simply let it go. We want those people to feel like being at home while visiting isohunt.to. The main goal is to restore the website with torrents and provide users with the same familiar interface," one of the anonymous members of the new group explained to TorrentFreak.
Some parts of the new Isohunt site remain inactive, including the forum, user profiles and comments, however the rest of the site faithfully mimics the original Isohunt site in form and function.
Fung's decision to close the site and pay the MPAA the huge settlement in mid-October came amid claims that the site "induced the pirating of movies and TV shows". A US federal court had previously issued an injunction against the site in 2009, but Isohunt kept operating via servers in Canada until it was shutdown prematurely in an attempt to thwart a team of people from making a complete backup of the site.
"It's sad to see my baby go. But I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful," Fung wrote on his blog before the shutdown. "10.5 years of isoHunt has been a long journey by any business definition, and forever in Internet startup time."
The MPAA's chairman Chris Dodd said in a statement at the time that the settlement sent "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 actions."
It is unclear what the legal ramifications of the resurrection of Isohunt will have, although the new team will almost certainly have the MPAA to contend with in the near future.
Source - TorrentFreak | The Guardian
