In what can be considered to be a landmark settlement, the owner of the site IsoHunt has been ordered to fork out $110 million as compensation, and will have to shut down the site before the new week begins. This ruling certainly sends out a strong signal to future infringers of the risks that they are taking. Court records which were filed today saw that Gary Fung, the owner of IsoHunt, has been given until the end of the week to shut down his BitTorrent search engine, apart from other related sites such as TorrenTBox and Podtropolis. Fung has also agreed to fork out money to pay different movie studios and other media production groups up to $110 million in damages as part of a deal to end the legal wrangle that has lasted a long seven years already.
MPAA chairman Chris Dodd said, “Today’s settlement is a major step forward in realizing the enormous potential of the internet as a platform for legitimate commerce and innovation. t also sends a strong message that those who build businesses around encouraging, enabling, and helping others to commit copyright infringement are themselves infringers, and will be held accountable for their illegal actions. The successful outcome of this landmark lawsuit will also will help preserve jobs and protect the tens of thousands of businesses in the creative industries, whose hard work and investments are exploited by sites like isoHunt.”
All’s well that ends well, right?
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