ISOHunt.to Interview: A Legendary Comeback For ISOHunt.com Fans 5/8/2014

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Torrent Site Interview: ISOHunt.to

In October of 2013 ISOHunt.com was forced to shutdown after battling in court with the MPAA and the RIAA. Not even a few short weeks later, ISOHunt.to popped online boasting nearly 75% of the original torrents that ISOHunt.com had, along with the same color scheme. What initially appeared to be a huge victory for the MPAA and associates, quickly turned otherwise as the loyal visitors and dedicated members of ISOHunt.com threw their support behind ISOHunt.to. Fast forward to present times and the website is generating millions of visitors per day and doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. Be sure to checkout the new ISOHunt at isohunt.to

We would definitely thank him for incredible work he has done over the years. Creating, developing, maintaining and defending such a huge project and community had to be inexplicably hard.
~ ISOHunt.to on the original creator of ISOHunt.com’s Gary Fung


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Who are the individuals behind ISOHunt.to?

There’s a small team behind the site. All of us have other projects but none of them were becoming this big and this fast.


How did you come up with the idea to start ISOHunt.to?

It was a sad thing for us to see such an iconic website as isoHunt.com go. We challenged ourselves to create a site that could help former users overcome this loss and be a place to keep sharing.


Have you ran any sites in the past or do you have any sites online currently aside from ISOHunt.to?

Yes, we have some experience in creating websites.


When did you first get involved in the Torrent Scene?

We’ve been using torrent sites for many years. As for creating ones, we didn’t have any experience until recently.


What do you think makes ISOHunt.to stand out from the competition?

It’s hard to say at this moment. The most obvious is that we have some users from isoHunt.com.

Over time we’ll develop the site to have unique user features.


What do you attribute to the sites immediate success?

Of course, if we picked another name then everything would be different. IsoHunt.com was one of the most popular sites out there and people are still looking for it on the net. That’s how they most probably end up on isoHunt.to. Many former users of the original site are also happy to feel at home on our version. The main goal was to give them a place they lost to continue sharing. Tons of positive messages prove that we got it right.


What would you say is your number one motivational factor behind the ISOHunt.to movement?

Users reviews we received are a proof that the idea of isoHunt resurrection / rebuilding was a right thing to do. People want to continue sharing and using one of their favorite websites. Why not create a new home for them?


Millions of people around the world believe that “sharing is caring”. What exactly does the phrase mean to you?

When you share something, you create a positive emotion. Sharing makes people smile and establish better relationships with each other.

What are some steps that you have taken to mitigate DDoS attacks when they occur?

The first thing that can be done is to setup some protection at a level of the hosting provider. That’s what we had to do to stay safe. As for the origin of these attacks, we had many guesses like competitors, DDoS protection providers, and MAFIAA. But neither can be proven unfortunately. We see other big sites being targeted. Looks like someone wants to bring file-sharing sites to their knees. I doubt that’s possible on a large scale.


How many visitors and page views does ISOHunt.to receive on a daily basis?

It’s around 1 million uniques and 2 million page views/day.

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Would you say that the majority of your visitors are the loyal ISOHunt.com members?

Not the majority but there are many, yes. It’s hard to evaluate the percentage.


How many new members have you had since ISOHunt.to launched?

About 100k.


Gary Fung from ISOHunt.com was an inspiration to many of us. Do you have an affiliations with Gary Fung or ISOHunt.com?

Nope, we are in no way affiliated with Gary Fung, IsoHunt.com or any of its former staff.


If you could say anything to Gary Fung what would it be?

We would definitely thank him for incredible work he has done over the years. Creating, developing, maintaining and defending such a huge project and community had to be inexplicably hard. Our follow-up project has only a fraction of isoHunt.com community and we can’t imagine how challenging it was to lead the way for everyone involved in the site development.


Hollywood and the MPAA thought they struck a huge victory when they shut down ISOHunt.com. Do you think they still believe that now?

It would definitely be a victory for them. But more and more projects will appear that will take place of closed ones. Sharing is in humans’ nature and you can’t fight the nature. People will always be creating ways to share knowledge and information.


It’s no secret, people love to be entertained and movies are one of the most sought out choices of entertainment. Obviously Hollywood & the MPAA’s position is seriously flawed in their failed attempts to end piracy. What do you think they could do instead of incarcerating, suing or threatening their most devoted customers and fans?

Provide affordable and usable ways to get content! There have been tons of studies showing people get pirated content because it’s the easiest way (or sometimes the only way) to get what they want. People are even willing to pay money for it. It’s still a mystery why copyright industry haven’t developed a way to turn pirates into paying customers. If there’s an easy (as easy as downloading from a torrent site) and cheap legal way to get content, piracy would be dramatically decreased.

Have you supported and political movements to prevent censorship online?

No.


What is your take on The Pirate Party?

We follow some news about them. They are doing a great job! Can’t tell more because most of their activity is unknown to us.

When you are faced with DMCA takedown notices, how do you respond to them?

We respond to DMCA takedown notices accordingly. The way that we respond to DMCA is in a way that we think is fair to both IsoHunt.to and the copyright holder.


Are you at all worried about being involved in a legal fiasco & are you prepared in the event that one does occur?

Of course we are worried, but at the moment we can’t picture ourselves involved in a lawsuit.


Where are the IsoHunt.to servers located?

Can’t give you an answer due to anonymity measures, but know that they are in one of the safest regions in the world.


Do your friends & family know you operate a torrent site?

Some of our friends and family members know about our involvement with isoHunt.to. But we told just those ones who we thought could approve of it. And they did.


What are the plans for ISOHunt.to’s future?

We plan to develop it as long as we can. For now we’re just very precautious about information and data we’re working with. Maybe later the security measures will be even stronger than now.


Which torrent sites did you used to visit before creating ISOHunt.to?

Probably all the top ones.


Do you feel that distributing copyrighted material is illegal?

That’s a tricky one.

We can’t feel legal/illegal, we can feel right or wrong. It’s illegal in some countries to distribute copyrighted content without proper permission. We feel it should be legal to help people share and search for content. That’s exactly what most torrent sites do, and not the former.


How can people determine if a Torrent file is a fake or a potential scam?

There are many factors that should be taken into account. Any torrent site forum (including ours) will give you some ideas about that. For public torrent sites users it comes with experience.


What are some of the teams hobbies outside of Torrents?

All the usual ones: Movies, Sports, Cat videos. ) Everyone in the team has his own.


What are the ISOHunt.to social pages for the members and fans who would like to stay in touch with you?

https://www.facebook.com/isohuntto, https://twitter.com/Isohuntto


Any final comments, last remarks you would like to share?

Keep sharing your thoughts and we’ll make an even greater torrent site together!

Yours truly,
IsoHunt.to team.