14 DAY TRIAL // The Icelandic copyright organizations that sued the country's largest BitTorrent tracker suffered another defeat after the court decided that there were no legal grounds in the case against the service. According to Ben Jones of TorrentFreak, the administrators of the website plan to reopen it on May 16, although the plaintiff struggled to keep it offline. Aside from the judge ruling, the BitTorrent website has also won approximately 3,200 euros after another payment of 4,000 euros received in March.
Obviously, the representatives of the copyright organizations were extremely disappointed with the decision, saying they would be doing anything in their power to claim their rights and stop the website from re-becoming available.
"This verdict is sad, and it is incredible to deny copyright holders seeking their rights. This is an unnecessary adherence on legal formalities in this case, rather than taking on the subject as it should. There still has not been a formal verdict in this case and it seems to be hard to get a judge to review the facts of the case itself, that is, the copyright laws themselves," a SMAIS official, the Association of film right-holders in Iceland, commented on the court ruling according to mlb.is and quoted by TorrentFreak.
The dispute between BitTorrent websites and copyright holders has now a long history and involves parties from all over the world. For instance, The Pirate Bay is currently involved in one of the most well-known legal disputes with MPAA, the copyright organization that is struggling to shut down the website and prevent it from distributing illegal material, as it claims. On the other hand, TorrentSpy, another popular name in the BitTorrent services industry, suffered defeat one week ago after the judge ruled that its owners must pay a fine of no less than $110 million because it had supported and enhanced the distribution of pirated content.