isoHunt Lite test roll out and on rumored keyword filtering

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 5:18 pm

US users, welcome to the lighter and lightning-fast isoHunt! Although we bring this new search engine to you with a burden from the lawsuit brought by the MPAA, we hope you understand the reason why we are making this change. We are addressing concerns Judge Wilson has expressed over inducing copyright infringement in the United States. Though inducement is never our intention (and we have evidence to support it), with isoHunt Lite we want to affirm publicly that isoHunt's essential function is merely to provide a search engine and a public utility with all the net neutrality it affords and should be afforded.

Despite rumors that we are ordered to filter by keywords for the US, there's only a proposed order, no actual order. Freedom of speech, non-infringing use and technical implementability issues are still being debated in further court briefs. We have not done any keyword filtering and are fighting all we can not to, because we believe search terms are ambiguous by nature, and that any requirement to keyword filter is a violation of freedom of speech and tantamount to censorship. There are many non-infringing uses for BitTorrent technology and we hope you will be able to continue to use isoHunt for these, free of constraints by gaping holes in the dictionary because your search triggered a keyword in a title of one of the million movies that have been produced.

Why would you still use isoHunt, you ask now that it's just like Google and Yahoo, and you can search for torrents with those? While we won't dispute that claim, there's a fundamental difference: On isoHunt Lite you get ranking by constantly updated seeds/leechers and ratings, statistics specific for BitTorrent, in addition to search relevancy and age. A general search engine also do not group as one multiple, identical torrents spread on different websites on the Web. Your continued use of isoHunt will also support our upcoming appeal against the MPAA, and we thank you in advance.

We protest the possibility we may be required by US law in upcoming injunction to keyword filter for US users as it would be censorship. The DMCA mandates with good reason that copyright notice and takedowns requested by copyright holders be done under penalty of perjury with accurate identifcation, with standard practice of links or URLs, not broad mucking with the dictionary. If you want to join us in protest, share this by Tweet, Facebook, etc. and write to Congress. Donation to organizations like the EFF will also help.

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 5:22 pm

I can tell you right now I do not like it there is no sort by catagorys at least give people the choice of which one they want to use .

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 5:24 pm

Robert7 wrote:

I can tell you right now I do not like it
there is no sort be catagorys at least give people the choice of which one they want to use .

This is in response to some completely illegitimate court orders.

This isn't by our choice, you state it as if it were.
It was either this or a complete removal of all content for united states users. Basically making this site go the way of mininova.

Don't get frustrated and quit on us though, we do plan to repeal the measure as it's ridiculous to begin with.
They can't really argue with isohunt lite though, because then they have to admit google is guilty of the same, and they know they can't beat google.

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 5:35 pm

personally i hate lite it kinda sucks
please change it back

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 5:39 pm

Crooked_Ferret wrote:

Don't get frustrated and quit on us though, we do plan to repeal the measure as it's ridiculous to begin with.
They can't really argue with isohunt lite though, because then they have to admit google is guilty of the same, and they know they can't beat google.

Yep its better than nothing at all and I agree with you if they had to remove isohunt lite then they would have to stop Google.. Some how I cannot see this happening ..

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 5:39 pm

Is it possible to at least view the comments on the links or make a way to do so? Not sure if that is restricted by the court orders or not, but that was what I enjoyed the most about Isohunt, the ability to see feedback about a torrent as well as the ability to add to the comments so others can be prepared for a good or bad torrent. I hope things work out with and we can get our old isohunt back.

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 5:41 pm

Just to let US users know, if you do a hash check on the torrent in Isohunt lite you can still read the comments that are posted in the regular Isohunt search engine. I don't know if this is going to stay this way but it's like that now.

So, if you search Jaybob. The list will come up on google, find what you want that is from Isohunt and click on the ? next to the hash. It will then bring up the search for that specific torrent on Isohunt. Click on it then comments and you can read all the comments. Kind of a pain but it works.

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 5:47 pm

Thanks Jenga that does help. Again long live the old Isohunt!

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 6:12 pm

Pyrochaser wrote:

Thanks Jenga that does help. Again long live the old Isohunt!

ditto thanks jenga - you're tha man

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 6:18 pm

It's pretty sad to see what has happened as of late. The current setup is still slightly better than merely googling for what I'm looking for in several ways.

The thing that's really irking me is since the change I'm getting tons of errors and am being rerouted to sites like minonova, which needless to say is boggling. If I wanted to use an alternative site, guess what? I'd go to that site instead.

It's definitely discouraging to see the current state of things. But it's not a deal breaker. What will be a deal breaker is if I keep being redirected to other sites that do not have the content I'm looking for, are blank, or simply searches through their database (remind you of "Bing" anyone?)

Hopefully this is all temporary and the storm will pass. If not, well, it was a good run while it lasted isoHunt.

Quite a depressing first forum post, considering I've been using this site for several years now.

P.S. I'm definitely going to continue to use the site in its current state. It still gets the job done for the most part. If redirects increase or things get worse however...

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 6:18 pm

My thoughts on Isohunt Lite,

Ok after reading the forum and the home page over and over my frustration is not aimed at the IH Leaders but at the Judge in question. While I am a avid supporter of this site I may not be able to continue to use it in this state. As a Marine I was taught "Semper Gumbi", other words always flexible, so i will try to adjust to this huge change to the format of this site. Weither or not I dicide to stay let it be known I will always support and donate to this site. With the money maybe we can get this back to perfection. "You Have My Sword!" as once said in a great movie, you all know the one.

IMHO IH Lite is no better then Google. No IH comments, No REAL connection to IH. Once again I know this isnt IHs fault. Just sad to see it all go.
Heres hoping it all gets fixed

-LCpl Rice, Eric E

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 6:43 pm

Izahealyou wrote:

My thoughts on Isohunt Lite,

Ok after reading the forum and the home page over and over my frustration is not aimed at the IH Leaders but at the Judge in question. While I am a avid supporter of this site I may not be able to continue to use it in this state. As a Marine I was taught "Semper Gumbi", other words always flexible, so i will try to adjust to this huge change to the format of this site. Weither or not I dicide to stay let it be known I will always support and donate to this site. With the money maybe we can get this back to perfection. "You Have My Sword!" as once said in a great movie, you all know the one.

IMHO IH Lite is no better then Google. No IH comments, No REAL connection to IH. Once again I know this isnt IHs fault. Just sad to see it all go.
Heres hoping it all gets fixed

-LCpl Rice, Eric E

its not us... it was either this or a complete removal of all content for united states users. Basically making this site go the way of mininova.

read above and look for jenga122's post Wink

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 6:55 pm

Congratulations, I'm leaving this site and never using it ever again. The search engine is a complete joke, and has been rendered absolutely unusable.

My advice? Get better lawyers. As of now, I'm going to The Pirate Bay or Torrent Reactor. Still haven't decided yet.

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 6:59 pm

What bothers me is no real way to sort the entries.

I know it's what has to be done....but omg...

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 7:10 pm

schlomo72 wrote:

Izahealyou wrote:

My thoughts on Isohunt Lite,

Ok after reading the forum and the home page over and over my frustration is not aimed at the IH Leaders but at the Judge in question. While I am a avid supporter of this site I may not be able to continue to use it in this state. As a Marine I was taught "Semper Gumbi", other words always flexible, so i will try to adjust to this huge change to the format of this site. Weither or not I dicide to stay let it be known I will always support and donate to this site. With the money maybe we can get this back to perfection. "You Have My Sword!" as once said in a great movie, you all know the one.

IMHO IH Lite is no better then Google. No IH comments, No REAL connection to IH. Once again I know this isnt IHs fault. Just sad to see it all go.
Heres hoping it all gets fixed

-LCpl Rice, Eric E

its not us... it was either this or a complete removal of all content for united states users. Basically making this site go the way of mininova.

read above and look for jenga122's post Wink

Toast man I know its not you guys but none the less still happened. Just know ya still got my support.