Official Ares Free Download

 Has Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music’s CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association of America) shot itself in the groin?

MiniNova has “abandoned its traditional indexing service, now working only with Content Distribution,” p2pnet posted yesterday.

That left Canada’s isoHunt “as probably the only major, and true, indexing site online,” we said.

Earlier, “Do you expect to be able to to continue for the foreeeable future?” – we’d asked isoHunt’s Gary Fung and, “Nothing’s changed as far as we are concerned,” he told us.

Meanwhile, “Since CRIA’s initial cease and desist letters (effectively asking us to shutdown entirely), we have tried to reason with CRIA, have petitioned the court on our legal right to exist as a search engine,” Fung posted on isoHunt, going on:

“Both to no avail, since Judge Curtis has denied our ‘petition’ as improper form, and have ordered us to a normal, lengthy and costly legal ‘action’. We have done that this week.  Here’s our Statement of Claim (pdf) we just filed for our action at the BC Supreme Court.”

Fung’s November 19 follow-up statement of claim against the Canadian Recording Industry Association “seeks a declaration that it is operating legally in Canada, Ottawa lawprofessor Michael Geist (right) says, continuing »»»

The filing is well worth reading as it explains BitTorrent technology and argues that isoHunt is a P2P search engine that merely indexes torrent files found on other indexing sites (it describes itself as a Super-Indexer).

Further, it notes the limits of its involvement in the copying process as well as its compliance with the DMCA notice-and-takedown system. isoHunt clearly tries to position itself as a specialized search engine that does not host infringing content.

The filing is the second in the case.  CRIA challenged isoHunt’s earlier filing, arguing that a full trial was needed.  The B.C. courts agreed and this marks the continuation of the case.

The CRIA response will be interesting since it faces a conflict between its rhetoric and its view of Canadian law.  On the one hand, it has argued that the isoHunt case is indication that Canadian law is out-of-date, suggesting that it provides a clear sign that reform is needed.  On the other, given that it initiated cease and desist letters, it is unlikely to simply say that isoHunt is correct and that it is operating legally.

“In other words,” Geist adds, “if it challenges isoHunt’s claims, it acknowledges that it believes that Canadian law can be used to stop torrent search sites.  If it doesn’t make such an argument, it can continue to make the claim for reform, but it loses the case.”

When will the Super-Super-Indexer-of-all-Indexers, Google, be sued bythe corporate entertainment industry, we wonder?

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