AfterDawn: News

Iceland's largest torrent tracker facing permanent shutdown

Torrent.is, the largest torrent Tracker in Iceland, is facing a permanent shutdown and the probability that it will have to pay restitution to copyright owners.

In November of 2007 Torrent.is received a preliminary injunction which eventually led to a shutdown of the site and a massive 50 percent drop in overall internet traffic in Iceland. Earlier this week, at the public hearing of the case, the plaintiffs asked for the monetary damages as well as a permanent shutdown of the site.



Snæbjörn Steingrímsson, an executive with SMAIS (the Icelandic MPAA) led the investigation and said his clients had lost "a few hundred million ISK" because of the site. At its peak, the site had 26,500 active users, all in Iceland to ensure fast connectivity between peers and seeds.

Svavar Kjarrval, the head administrator of Torrent.is feels he has a strong case though. “The plaintiffs are making an outrageous claim. They argue that website and domain owners should always be responsible for copyright violations of third parties. The case could set a dangerous precedent if the court agrees with their claims.”

We will keep you updated.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 20 Mar 2008 16:49

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• 5 comments

• nintenut

  No one else in Iceland owns a computer, everyone else is at the library. XP

  20.3.2008 18:41 #1

• z3rofate

  gotta love iceland

  20.3.2008 20:50 #2

• dRD

  AFAIK, due Iceland's rather isolated location (==expensive backbone connections to outside world), the ISPs have some sort of caps in place for traffic going to outside Iceland, whereas the traffic within the Iceland is "unmetered", thus the traffic drop of 50% sounds quite feasible for this situation.

  21.3.2008 02:01 #3

• nlitement

  Originally posted by dRD: AFAIK, due Iceland's rather isolated location (==expensive backbone connections to outside world), the ISPs have some sort of caps in place for traffic going to outside Iceland, whereas the traffic within the Iceland is "unmetered", thus the traffic drop of 50% sounds quite feasible for this situation.
  I think you mean "whereas the traffic within Reykjavik" :)

  21.3.2008 11:55 #4

• dRD

  Quote:Originally posted by dRD: AFAIK, due Iceland's rather isolated location (==expensive backbone connections to outside world), the ISPs have some sort of caps in place for traffic going to outside Iceland, whereas the traffic within the Iceland is "unmetered", thus the traffic drop of 50% sounds quite feasible for this situation.
  I think you mean "whereas the traffic within Reykjavik" :)Same thing really :-) (two thirds of Iceland's population live in Reykjavik metro area)

  21.3.2008 13:44 #5