isohunt

Since January 2011, Google has been filtering “piracy-related” terms from its ‘Autocomplete‘ and ‘Instant‘ services.

In June 2008, police arrested Blackistef, the administrator of two Internet sites. The action was taken following complaints by music rights group SACEM who had taken exception to his operations at BitTorrent links forum Torrentnews.net, and Torrent-public-center.com, a BitTorrent meta-search engine.

“I spent a day like a thief, locked in their cells filled with shit and even showered on the walls,” said Blackistef at the time.

“A hole in the ground for a toilet (which you can not flush) and a single concrete bench.”

Developed by a team of Russian coders, MediaGet was first released to the public in February 2010.

At the time the client was only available in Russian, but through partnerships with various websites the client reached its millionth download within a few months.

But the MediaGet team wanted more.

Earlier this year they translated the BitTorrent client into English, Spanish, French, German and Italian, and not without success.

Last week, a single three judge panel from the 9th Circuit appeals court heard two key appeals concerning the DMCA, and specifically the DMCA's safe harbors for service providers.

Lawyer Michael Barclay attended both appeals and has an excellent report and analysis of each.

May last year the U.S.

District Court of California issued a permanent injunction against BitTorrent search engine isoHunt.

The injunction is the result of isoHunt’s protracted court battle with the MPAA that started back in 2006.

The Court ordered the owner of isoHunt to start censoring the site’s search engine based on a list of thousands of keywords provided by the MPAA, or cease its operations entirely in the U.S.

Anti-piracy companies come in all shapes and sizes, from the large corporate concerns of the United States and Europe to the smaller outfits operating in a niche, taking down content and links for smaller, independent rights holders.

Some like to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut while others try the more sensitive approach, negotiating in person and gently persuading sites to comply.

Others, like India’s AiPlex Software, do things in a way which can leave onlookers completely bewildered.

Two months ago Google got involved in a BitTorrent case for the first time in its history.

The company took an interest in the ongoing legal action between isoHunt and the MPAA, fearing that the standing injunction has the potential to damage Google and other web services.

Last year the BitTorrent search engine isoHunt filed an appeal in their case with the MPAA. With the appeal isoHunt hopes to overturn a District Court ruling that obligates the site to operate an MPAA-approved censorship filter.

The case is still ongoing and the Appeal Court has now granted Google the opportunity to chime in as well, leading to critical comments from both the MPAA and isoHunt.

Last month search giant Google got involved in a BitTorrent case for the first time in its history.

The company took interest in the ongoing court case between isoHunt and the MPAA, fearing that the standing injunction has the potential to damage Google and other web-services.

TorrentFreak is noting that Google has, perhaps for the first time, waded into any of the lawsuits concerning torrent search engines, filing an amicus brief in the ongoing IsoHunt appeal.

In the past, other torrent search engines have been somewhat upset that Google has stayed quiet, noting that many of the arguments used against them could equally apply to Google.