isoHunt to Pay $66M in Music Settlement

We’ve talked about the grey area of streaming before, including artists fighting for more royalties and the age of YouTube piracy. But now there’s some good news for the artists and studios: Canadian-based BitTorrent website, isoHunt, has settled two copyright lawsuits by agreeing to pay $66 million in damages. isoHunt was a hub where users could download and upload files, such as music and movies.

isoHunt had already met its end in 2013, after being shut down in a $110 million settlement with the United States movie industry. But now the isoHunt founder, Gary Fung, must pay reparations to twenty-seven Canadian and international record companies.

Graham Henderson, the president and CEO of Music Canada, told CBC News, “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."

In spite of the heavy penalties he received, Gary Fung extended thanks to his legal team after years of litigation, and also assured old users that their private information and user data was safe. He stated to CBC News that the whole experience was “an interesting and challenging journey” which begs the question of his conscience. Does he feel any guilt over the settlements? We may never know.

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