November 10, 2008

By By Robert Thompson, Toronto

The Canadian Recording Industry Association is not suing torrent site isoHunt.com as reported on various Internet sites and by the torrent site?s founder.

Gary Fung, the Vancouver-based creator of isoHunt, a torrent site that has come under fire from the film industry in the U.S., has told media outlets that he is being sued by CRIA, which represents Canada?s major music labels.

?Since I?ve been sued by both the MPAA (Hollywood) and the CRIA (Canadian recording industry), I?ve talked about what?s been happening with our cases,? he posted on his site. ?Our CRIA case has also recently received mainstream press attention by the Canadian Press and Globe and Mail. But the question is why? Why do they insist on suing their own customers? Why do they sue search engines like us, who make the Internet more useful for everyone??

However, a spokesman for CRIA would only say the organization is not suing Fung. Instead, Fung has put forth an application to the Supreme Court of British Columbia asking the court to preemptively rule that isoHunt?s activities don?t violate Canada?s Copyright Act. CRIA has asked isoHunt and Fung to desist from infringing on the copyrights of member labels, but has not followed the Motion Picture Association of America in launching legal action. The MPAA launched legal action against IsoHunt in 2006.

Legal sources monitoring the Fung case say the matter is likely too complicated for a typical application. Regardless, a decision on the matter is not likely to be rendered until next year.

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