Opinion: Another file-sharing site runs afoul of the U.S. courts

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

A U.S. District Court judge in Los Angeles handed the Hollywood studios another victory this week in their sisyphusian fight against online piracy, granting a summary judgment motion against the BitTorrent index site isoHunt. The MPAA’s top copyright cop, Daniel Mandil, declared, ‘The Court’s decision establishes a powerful precedent that makes clear, once again, that website operators must respect the rights of content owners and control infringement on their websites, or face liability for their actions. The Isohunt decision should serve as a clear warning that similar sites are likely to face the same liability.’ My take is a little different. Granted, Mandil is a lawyer and I’m not. (I have one in my family, but that doesn’t count for much.) Still, I think the court narrowed its ruling against isoHunt in ways that limited its potential as a precedent. Read my full account at the Times’ Technology blog. (Hat tips to Ars Technica and Michael Geist for the links to the ruling.)

-- Jon Healey