Piracy site IsoHunt to shut down

[Jazzy]

IsoHunt, a popular website offering BitTorrents of mostly pirated material, is to shut down following a court settlement.

The site's owner, Canadian Gary Fung, has agreed to pay $110m (£68m) to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

MPAA chairman Chris Dodd said the move was a "major step forward" for legitimate commerce online.

In a blog post, Mr Fung said: "It's sad to see my baby go."

The site is currently still online, but will soon be shut. It is one of the most popular sites of its kind on the internet.

A group of companies, including Disney, Paramount and Twentieth Century Fox, accused the site of wilfully infringing copyright by listing millions of popular movies and TV programmes - in a court battle that has lasted for more than seven years.

Now Mr Fung has agreed to settle. He added: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race and I have remained faithful. 10.5 years of IsoHunt has been a long journey by any business definition and forever in internet start-up time.

"It started as a programming hobby in my university days that has become so, so much more."

Court documents acknowledged that it is unlikely that Mr Fung's company could pay $110m, and that the MPAA would probably receive between $2m and $4m.

Full article

Have you ever used IsoHunt?

 

[Darth-Apple]

I haven't. The only thing I've ever really used torrents for is for Linux ISO downloads, since the official download servers are usually very slow.

 

[Nebulous]

I have heard of it but I never used it.
I wonder when Frostwire is going to get shutdown

 

[JetWing34]

Never had. This is one step towards a safer Internet, and it is a huge victory for motion picture companies.

 

[Evil Eye]

This is one step towards a safer Internet, and it is a huge victory for motion picture companies.

How so?
The only thing they won was a little money.

 

[Kirito]

I used it a lot when piratebay was blocked in Belgium. It's sad to see it go but luckily piratebay is back up.

Not sure how this is "a step forward" though. 90% of the torrents they had came from piratebay anyway so the only thing they did was force people to google for another torrent site.

Never had. This is one step towards a safer Internet, and it is a huge victory for motion picture companies.

What does this have to do with safer internet? =/