IsoHunt BitTorrent Tracker Closes After Defeat Against MPAA

isoHunt, a BitTorrent tracker with a decade of history, will close within a week under an agreement with the American Film Association (MPAA), writes The Verge. Under the terms of the agreement, which ended a long-standing lawsuit, site founder Gary Fang pledged to permanently close isoHunt and three other sites, Podtropolis, TorrentBox, and Edtk-it.com, redirecting to isoHunt for seven days.

According to Forbes, Gary Fang was due to appear in court on November 5, following which MPAA expected to receive compensation of up to $ 600 million. However, yesterday, Fang decided to admit defeat, agreeing to pay a smaller, but still huge amount of 110 million, and it is not clear where he will get this money.

The conflict between isoHunt and the film industry began in 2006, when the MPAA accused the resource of promoting copyright infringement on a massive scale. Fang claimed that the site functions essentially like Google and falls under the “safe haven” principle of DMCA, which allows Internet services to not be held responsible for illegal content posted by users if the service removes them at the request of copyright holders.

However, in March of this year, the court did not agree with this interpretation. He determined that Fang was knowledgeable about piracy on his network and did nothing to prevent it, instead actively encouraging users to download torrents with specific films and helping people find copyrighted content.

The MPAA stated that the agreement reached “makes it clear that those who build businesses to promote, provide opportunities and help others infringe on copyrights are themselves infringers and will be held responsible for their illegal actions."

Fang, meanwhile, posted a farewell message on his website: “It's sad to leave your brainchild. But I fought well, I finished the race and I remained stubborn. Ten and a half years isoHunt is a long journey through the definitions of any business and an eternity in the era of Internet startups. ”