Los Angeles
– A federal judge yesterday issued a preliminary injunction against BitTorrent
file-sharing search engine Isohunt, ordering the site to stop hosting,
indexing, linking to or otherwise providing access to torrents or similar files
that link to copyrighted content. Last month, the site attempted to comply with
an earlier ruling demanding copyrighted content be removed from the site by
launching a "lite" version for U.S. users — a bare bones search
page intended to look and function similarly to Google’s search engine.
U.S.
District Judge Stephen Wilson said this fix does not meet the court’s
stipulations, as the "lite" version "contains all of the same
indexing and searching functions as the original websites, only with a
different interface for the users to operate."
It’s unclear whether
Isohunt operator Gary Fung will be able to continue operating the site under
the current injunction, which states that Fung and Isohunt are barred from
"soliciting or targeting a user base generally understood, in substantial
part, to be engaging in infringement of, or seeking to infringe, Plaintiffs
Copyrighted Works."
Fung could face potential jail time for failing to
comply with the court’s order.
Related Links:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/31719090/Isohunt-Permanent-Injunction
http://snipurl.com/wmdmk
(NewTeeVee)
http://snipurl.com/wmduq
(DMW previous coverage)
http://snipurl.com/wmdvc
(DMW previous coverage)
