Copyright Infringement and BitTorrent Search Engines

[Cynthia Foster]

The process of downloading movies and music on the Internet (gratis) just got a little more complicated. Isohunt, one of the world's most comprehensive torrent search engines, was just ordered to remove links to all copyrighted material by a judge in Los Angeles, according to Wired.

The issue of search engines returning results that are copyright infringements is a hot button one. Just a few weeks ago, Google triumphed in a copyright dispute with luxury handbag-maker Louis Vuitton. Isohunt, also a search engine, wasn't so lucky.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson reasoned that the availability of free copyrighted material (like the movies and music you can find through Isohunt) "irreparably undermines" the market for legally purchasing the same media. Wilson is demanding that Isohunt remove access to files that use or are based on "infringement-related terms." Isohunt argues that this "amounts to nothing less than taking down [its] search engine," according to founder Gary Fung.

Comments

[mike]

thanks for post.

[IsoHunt fan]

This sucks!