Let me start off by saying that The Movie Blog does NOT support or endorse piracy.
The very popular site called IsoHunt would not be the first torrent site to receive a cease and desist order to remove one or more of their indexing links that lead to pirated music or movies. For the most part they comply. But in an interesting twist as a response to a CRIA threat that they would sue, the Torrent site is SUING the CRIA!
RGFilter has an interesting article about that.
Earlier this year the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) sent a Cease And Desist letter to popular torrent seach site Isohunt, demanding that the site be taken down for copyright violation. If founder Gary Fung refused, the CRIA has threatened to sue them to the not so compressed tune of $20,000 per infringing recording.
Isohunt is trying something different. They’re suing the CRIA right back.”
Now I am the least lawyer like guy on The Movie Blog, but that just sounds funny to me. The torrent site that encourages piracy is Suing the CRIA, and this is not the first time they have done this. They have a current suit pending against the MPAA as well.
These pirates got some balls. The argument is this; IsoHunt is not providing files. They are simply an index site. They point to the files, and what you do with them is your own business. They benefit from this through traffic with ads. They do not benefit directly from the linking or downloading of files.
I often relate piracy to the drug trade because it makes for a fun analogy, however I do not take the drug trade as light either. So lets look at it this way.
If someone asks to buy drugs from you, you would say no. Because you are not selling drugs. (DRUGS BAD!) But if you say, “that guy down the street sells drugs” are you now a drug dealer? Can you be arrested for that? No, you can’t. There is a bigger moral issue that you shouldn’t be telling people where to buy drugs, but there is no law against that. And the financial gain they get from this is like saying they sold advertising space in the window of their store because a lot of people walk by here (to go buy drugs). They are not financially benefiting directly from the acquisition of the files.
There is a retail outlet in the mall that sells drug paraphernalia, magazines published about it, tshirts supporting the habit and even pots and soil specially formulated to grow it. But they do not sell the drug. They are not breaking the law.
So in a strict legal sense, IsoHunt seems to have a good case. But morally they are benefiting from the support of the illegal act. So if this sets a precedent, it could enable other sites to more freely offer these offending links. Things can get out of control by allowing this. If they win this case the law would have an example of a site that defended its stand as “just indexing” then more sites could rampantly do the same without fear of accusation.
Do they ban the use of Torrents altogether while so many organizations and companies have found very legitimate and legal ways to distribute their updates or open source software using it?
So where do we draw the line? If torrent indexing sites are untouchable (not doing anything illegal), how do they resolve or even address illegal downloading? Do they change the law to prosecute against indexing sites as well? How far the other way does that go? If TMB links to a YouTube video that violates copyright (a lot of YouTube does) will we be held liable for the same violation?
Should the laws be amended to include indexing? Google indexes freely as their god given American right allows the freedom of information. Google is not responsible for the accuracy or validity of such information, it just points to it.
Presuming you are against piracy, do you think IsoHunt (or any indexing site) SHOULD be stopped?
