Introduction
IsoHunt is one of the most popular torrent search engines, responsible for bringing countless free files (mostly movies, TV shows, software applications, and music albums) to the masses. Unfortunately for IsoHunt, they’ve also faced considerable legal challenges and have been shut down on multiple occasions. Nevertheless, they’ve managed to resurrect themselves time after time, fighting against the industry giants and their efforts to take them down. In this article, we’ll be discussing everything you need to know about IsoHunt, including its history, features, pros and cons, and alternatives.
History of IsoHunt
IsoHunt was launched back in 2003 by a Canadian named Gary Fung. Initially, it was a simple search engine for BitTorrent files, which was then known as TorrentBox. Over time, Fung added more features to IsoHunt that allowed users to upload, download, and share files with each other. The site quickly gained popularity, eventually reaching the status of one of the largest search engines for torrents on the web. According to sources, IsoHunt had more than 13.7 million torrents available for download, which made it one of the most comprehensive libraries of digital media content online.
Legal Battles Faced by IsoHunt
Unfortunately, IsoHunt's success came at a cost. As a result of inappropriate content shared by users on the site, and the massive amount of copyright infringement that took place there, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) launched a lawsuit against IsoHunt in 2006. The lawsuit was finally settled in 2013, after IsoHunt agreed to pay the MPAA over $100 million in damages. Following this lawsuit, IsoHunt's domain was seized by the US Government, effectively shutting it down for good. However, IsoHunt was not a website that went down easily. Despite the shutdown, numerous mirror sites and clone sites popped up in its place, some of which continue to operate today.
Conclusion: Should You Use IsoHunt?
IsoHunt is an incredibly powerful tool for torrenting, offering a vast library of files for users to download, upload, and share. However, given the legal issues that the site has faced in the past, we cannot recommend using it to download or distribute copyrighted materials. Furthermore, there are many other quality torrent search engines and BitTorrent clients available on the market that are more secure and reliable than IsoHunt. Some examples include uTorrent, The Pirate Bay, and KickassTorrents. If you are interested in downloading torrents, be sure to use a VPN, and always adhere to copyright laws to protect yourself and the creators of the content you are downloading.
