Hollywood Appeals Decision Not to Shutdown OpenBitTorrent

Last month a court rejected calls from Hollywood to order the shutdown of the OpenBitTorrent tracker. Unsatisfied with the decision, the studios are now taking their case to appeal, stating that the ISP who hosts the site is no different to landlords who knowingly allow prostitution on their premises.

In November, Swedish ISP Portlane was sued by several Hollywood studios for hosting the OpenBitTorrent (OBT) tracker, claiming that the ISP is contributing to copyright infringements carried out via the site.

Hollywood lawyer Monique Wadsted, seemingly without any solid proof above mere suspicion, said her clients believe that OBT is simply a re-branded version of the tracker previously operated by The Pirate Bay.

In December 2009, the case went to court. For the studios, the outcome wasn’t good. Even though it was agreed that OpenBitTorrent was being used in some cases to facilitate the distribution of copyright works, the Stockholm District Court rejected calls to force Portlane to close down the site.

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