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CBC Reports that Canadian torrent site isoHunt has settled with the Music Industry, agreeing to pay $66 Million in damages.
isoHunt founder Gary Fung and isoHunt have agreed in a consent order filed with the Supreme Court of B.C., that they infringed on the copyright of a group of 27 Canadian and international record companies.
They have also agreed to pay $55 million in damages, $10 million in aggravated damages and $1 million in legal costs to settle the lawsuit filed by the music industry in 2010.
The Music Industry commented:
"Music companies in Canada stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the fight against illegitimate sites that distribute massive volumes of creative works without compensation to creators," said Graham Henderson, president and CEO of Music Canada, an industry group that represents Sony Music Entertainment Canada, Universal Music Canada and Warner Music Canada, in a statement announcing the settlements.
"Thousands of Canadian creators, our creative industries, and their employees are directly harmed by these activities. This settlement is a step forward towards providing consumers with a marketplace in which legitimate online music services can thrive."
Fung's own statement can be found at medium.com
In my time with isoHunt for 11 years, I've fought 2 lawsuits. One from Hollywood studios in the US and one from CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Ass.), aka. Music Canada. During this time, up to isoHunt's shutdown in 2013, I promised that I'd protect isoHunt users' rights and privacy in not disclosing any user data such as email and IP addresses in legal discovery from plaintiffs, which might be used for trolling and extortion.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday July 27 2016, @04:50PM
Big Media has fought technology since the player piano, over 100 years ago. They fought AM radio, the cassette tape, digital audio tape, the mp3 format. Each time they cried wolf about how the new technology would destroy their business, and each time they were proven very wrong.
Technology made their business possible, but how quickly they forget that. Without microphones, amplifiers, and recording equipment, music would still be limited to live performances with small audiences, as it was in the 19th century. Without amplifiers, 3000 people per performance was about the limit.
Now recording and duplication equipment is plentiful, practical, convenient, small, and cheap, and still getting better and cheaper and easier. Everyone can own some. The industry is fighting that fact bitterly. Copyright must go, but they won't let it go. They are willing to make total asses of themselves and screw the rest of the world rather than admit copyright is unworkable and impractical. The business model for the future will have to be various forms of crowdfunding, advertising revenue, and the like. Copyright wasn't a good idea in the beginning, imposing monopolies by fiat where there was no natural monopoly. Thomas Jefferson had his doubts. Hard enough to prevent natural monopolies from forming, the people have to be on constant watch for that, push our government out of their regulatory capture ruts, keep our markets competitive. It is particularly perverse to have our government on Big Media's side and against the public in this fight that shouldn't even be happening, this controversy that is almost as fake as the supposed controversy between Evolution and Creationism.
Sadly, many people have swallowed their propaganda. It's going to be a long fight. R.I.P. IsoHunt, and thank you for your service to the people.
(Score: 2) by korger on Wednesday July 27 2016, @09:48PM
The biggest problem with copyright is not that it exists, but its insane terms. The life of authors plus seventy years?! And they have the audacity to claim that this is for encouraging artists to produce more?! It has exactly the opposite effect: now a talented author can push out one big feast, then retire and live off the royalties forever, without producing anything any more. If copyright had some sane terms, like patents: publication plus 14 years, optionally extensible one time for another 14, I wouldn't have problems with it. That would be plenty of time to recoup the production costs, with some nice bonus on the side, too. But in no other industry can people expect that they do something and still get payed for it half a century later. That's unfair to the whole society.
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Wednesday July 27 2016, @09:57PM
The biggest problem with copyright is not that it exists
No, that is the biggest problem with copyright. It limits freedom of speech, limits ownership over the physical property that you own, and restricts competition. This is about principles and freedom, so even if you can somehow prove there would be less 'innovation' without copyright, that doesn't matter one single bit because it's not worth the cost to freedom. In a just, principled society that truly cared about freedom instead of getting more shiny goodies, copyright wouldn't exist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 27 2016, @10:03PM
I.e., "what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine." Very selfish and self-serving language wrapped in a veneer of Liberty you've got there.
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Wednesday July 27 2016, @10:32PM
i.e. "I'm going to spew forth some straw men and ad hominems and pretend it's a valid counterargument."
Whether or not selfishness is my motivation is completely irrelevant to whether or not my arguments are correct. There's really nothing else in your comment.