[news=http://www.slyck.com/newspics/ed2kit.jpg]The MPAA, the organization representing the interests of the major movie and television studios, filed several lawsuits against various indexing sites on February 23, 2006. These sites included many of the larger BitTorrent, eDonkey2000 and Usenet indexing communities. ed2k-it.com, an eDonkey2000 hash link exchange site, was among those named in the seven lawsuits.
The intentions of those affected by the lawsuits were known within days. isoHunt and TorrentSpy, search engines typically used to find torrent files, announced their resistance to the lawsuits and stated their intentions to fight. Conversely, the Usenet indexing site DVDRs.net went to the extreme measure of announcing their closure. ed2k-it.com made a similar announcement on March 1st, and closed shop shortly thereafter.
Although DVDRs.net is no longer online, ed2k-it.com has made the surprising decision to come back online. As of this morning ed2k-it.com is fully functional, including its highly resourceful user forums. Although not a traditional indexing site, ed2k-it.com utilizes its forums to organize and distribute eDonkey2000 hash links. The resourcefulness of ed2k-it.com is further enhanced by widespread community interaction - assuring high quality links. This virtue was quantified in the MPAA's complaint against ed2k-it.com.
"Many hashes on the eDonkey network link to files that are flawed, incomplete, corrupted, or otherwise useless to a user wishing to obtain an unauthorized copy of a copyrighted movie or television program. Hash link sites such as Defendants’ are designed in part to weed out these “bad” hashes and index only hashes linking to a quality files. In the case of indexing television and movie hashes, hash link sites are intentionally designed to enable users to find the best copies of the unauthorized copyrighted works."
Yet ed2k-it.com appears undeterred. Currently under "new management", ed2k-it.com is confident in their legal position and has restored all previous functionality.
"After 2 weeks of downtime, ed2k-it.com is now back online. Yes, ed2k-it.com is being sued by the MPAA, along with a number of other websites. ed2k-it.com now joins the family of isoHunt.com and TorrentBox.com under new management. ed2k-it.com continues to run as before, and it's my pleasure to continue the community that have called this home."
The "new management" referenced in the announcement is likely Gary Fung, administrator of isoHunt.com and TorrentBox.com. isoHunt's administration has been vocal against the MPAA, and has made good on its promise to fight the lawsuit by filing a motion to dismiss the complaint.
Seemingly in control of ed2k-it, isoHunt and TorrentBox, this grouping of indexing sites makes Fung master of one of the largest conglomerates of file-sharing resources on the Internet. How this translates into his chances in courtroom will be answered soon enough.
Source: http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=1149[/news]
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