Journal edgarde's Journal: Nirvana publisher shuts down torrent site 1
- 2005-04-07 18:28:34 Nirvana publisher shuts down torrent site (Your Rights Online,Music) (pending)
Yesterday Easytree shut down abruptly in response to legal threats made to their ISP (not to Easytree) claiming "massive copyright violations". According to their home page: "... they had received a few letters from a couple of lawyers. They requested EZT to be shut down immediately, otherwise we and the hosting service would be sued."
Today they found out the culprit:
"The offender was torrent # 30630, NIRVANA 08/30/1992 Reading Festival Complete PRO Shot DVD. In particular the title 'Smells like Teen Spirit', rightowner: Universal, claimed through Universal Music GmbH, Germany, and pro MediaGmbH (exclusive partner of IFPI in Germany)."
EZT has been the leading music torrent site. Tho not limiting their torrents to "taper friendly" bands, EZT are (were) meticulous about deleting subject matter by "banned" artists. It is easily more cost-effective for an artist or publisher to request a ban than to initiate legal action.
"To our knowledge this is the first time anyone has done an end-run around us to our hosting service and the first time there's been a demand to stop the entire operation."
Updates will be posted to EZT's Yahoo! group (registration required).
Another Torrent Site Bites the dust (story link) (Score:2)