Iceland’s Largest BitTorrent Tracker Wins in Court
Written by Ben Jones on March 28, 2008Whilst one site may have closed its doors thanks to the MPAA, after continuous legal pressure, another has prevailed today in court. Torrent.is has won in court over the Association of film rights-holder in Iceland (SMÃÃS)
The case is a study in classic big business bullying. Like similar cases in the US, SMÃÃS complained to the court about alleged copyright infringement activities on the BitTorrent site, and got a preliminary injunction, blocking the site.
However, justice works swifter in Iceland than it does in the US, and after only 4 months, the case has been to court.
The decision, however, was as surprising as it was swift. Instead of deciding for or against the defendants, the court simply dismissed the case. It is likely, however, that the plaintiffs will appeal the decision to the Icelandic ‘Supreme Court’ (Hæstiréttur).
The verdict, (available in Icelandic here) seems to hinge on the fact that under Icelandic laws, searching for files, or providing accessibility to them, is legal, as long as the files provided by the service are not themselves copyrighted. Torrent files, are not themselves copyrighted, but are instead metadata , data about data- describing copyrighted material, as indeed are reviews.
Svavar Lúthersson, owner of torrents.is, told TorrentFreak in a response to the court ruling “I’m very glad they came to this decision although it came as a surprise for myself and the plaintiffs. I will have to consult with my lawyer as to what this decision means regarding the preliminary injunction but currently it’s still in effect.”
The preliminary injunction seems likely to stay in effect until an appeal is heard, so the site won’t be back up yet. However, the plaintiffs were ordered to pay the court costs of Istorrent ehf (Pltd), the company behind Torrent.is, and its owner Svavar Lúthersson in the amount of 500,000 Icelandic Krona (approx £3320UK / $6700US / €4250 Euro)
SMÃÃS was asked for their comment on the ruling, but their contact email address was automatically bouncing as failed.
Previously: Swedish ISP Refuses To Block The Pirate Bay
Next: BPI Crackdown Planned as BitTorrent Becomes ‘Too Easy’
68 Responses
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+1 for the pirates
This is funny
nice
at least there are still countries with some common sense left
not forgetting the ISP’s about to die if the site went down
+2 for the pirates
Massive traffic boost for Torrent.is in 5… 4… 3…
Torrent is here to stay… So all those d!ck heads better stop controlling torrent users….
Long live the pirates!
Lets seed!
http://www.hack5.blogspot.com
YES !!!
GO ICELAND !!!!
WOOOOH!!! You guys are way smarter than most of the rest of the world, AND your government (at least in this) reflects the voice of the people; you ROCK!!!
Hey, Americans: wanna stop being walked all over by your government? Hell, want to stop.being.slaves?
GO RON PAUL !!!
TOLDCHA!
What tickles me the most about this is that not only was SMÃÃS essentially laughed out of court, they were forced to pay Torrent.is’ legal costs.
What tickles me the *second* most about this is that I recall hired MAFIAA goons posting comments on this site, saying that every ISP on the face of the planet would eventually *voluntarily* block all P2P traffic because they wouldn’t want to deal with the legal hassles of fighting crime syndicates like SMÃÃS, and they wouldn’t have anything to lose by blocking P2P anyway. You know, because filesharers are such a tiny minority.
That was good for a few extra chuckles.
BTW, why the fuck is Torrent Freak seperating comments into multiple pages now!? Boo! BOOOOOO! That is NOT a smart idea. When you divide them like that, pretty much nobody is going to bother reading past the first page. A “Show All” button does little to change that.
Seriously. It’s user unfriendly and it all but gaurentees that comments past page 1 will never be seen.
What’s the point?
Nordic countries are fighting back… even though at times the governments are weak the peoples will is strong.
Read more filesharing stuff and opinions at http://www.ezee.se/
Yes, its a swedish domain :)
Iceland has internet?
I thought it was just igloos n stuff.
mafiaa has good kung foo but our kung foo is stronger! :-)
GO ICELAND!!!
Bad idea to paginate the comments. That’s gonna end in a race for the first 25 places whether the comments make sense or not.
Let’s send all judges to Iceland for a sabbatical.
Pirates=winners
Yes cmon guys more seeding please if possible, instead of stopping as soon as downloaded, and a higher upload rate if possible. Please do your part for the torrent system, so everyone can download smoothly at a reasonable rate. If they say sharing is bad we know it must be good, so lets do it.
Victory for data freedom!
The tide seems to be turning in legal circles. We’re winning!!!
All that’s left now is to get compensation for every user affected by these cartels, even every PC user who is forced to pay them fees, and has had their Internet interfere with, delaying them and costing them money. Then it’s on to destroy and bankrupt them. Meanwhile file sharers full steam ahead with super fast transfer.
We also need to turn a profit ourselves so we can make a living.
YaY for ICELAND. I buy all my frozen foods from their shops :)
AmyPink - TokyoPunk Designs ROCK!
[quote comment="320905"]YaY for ICELAND. I buy all my frozen foods from their shops :)[/quote]
Lol
i knew it here!
http://pluking.blogspot.com
One small step for man, but a GIANT blow against the MAFIAA !
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