Judge: MPAA Hasn't Proven Isohunt Users Broke U.S. Laws

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 27, 2009 - 9:18am.

San Francisco - A federal judge said Wednesday that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) had not proven that users of Isohunt, a search engine providing links to files on BitTorrent file-sharing networks, are violating U.S. copyright law, CNET News.com reported.

The MPAA now has until Sept. 15 to file a brief providing additional evidence that Isohunt users located in the U.S. have committed direct copyright infringement.

"Our view is that it would be difficult if not impossible to be able to trace any direct infringement to the users of the Isohunt's site in a manner that would hold Isohunt responsible for the infringing conduct," Isohunt attorney Ira Rothken told CNET.

"I think the judge's order will hopefully demonstrate to the court that Isohunt, besides lacking knowledge of direct infringement, can't possibly be held liable for users conduct, especially since any such conduct occurs after they leave the site."

Rothken is seeking a jury trial on the merits.

"I believe there has not been a single case in U.S. law where there has been a decision on the merits of a Torrent search engine," he added.

http://snipurl.com/rfyce (DMW previous coverage)

http://www.mpaa.org