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Well... it is true that something smells fishy. Here's another article on the subject:

LokiTorrent Selling to the MPAA

The basic summary is that LokiTorrent started collecting 30k$ before they were even sued, and then really raised the money after that; yet, these sites make lots of money in advertizing dollars. LokiTorrent claimed 2 million visitors a day; with a 1% clickthrough rate and a payoff of 10 cents per click, that's 2k$/day=$730,480/yr. Even after paying hosting costs, it's quite an impressive sum.

Sure, it could be legit. Then again, perhaps not. What it comes down to are that the people running these sites are just people, and they seem likely to do what's best for their own interests. And they certainly don't have too many scruples about breaking the law...

You guys need to Read this one!! http://www.torrent-news.com/archives/rumor_mill/00 0055.php/

Alot of posts coming up about this at BitTorrent News http://torrent-news.com/ english here http://bittorrent.jp/ japanese here Also doesnt it strike anyone as being out that they shut down and were fined $1million supposedly without even a courtdate?? Where did that money he raised go? I mean has anyone else seen a p2p lawsuit end in less than 1 month? I know I wouldnt agree to pay $1m if I thought I was innocent. If I new I was going to shut down I totally wouldnt ask for money Also where did all his ad money go? BitTorrent News did a good job at bringing up alot of these points 2 weeks ago!!

The MPAA's efforts to date have resulted in a 40 percent reduction in the number of servers that continue to operate. One such site that will no longer exist is LokiTorrent--one of the largest BitTorrent host servers. The operator of that site, Edward Webber, agreed to not only pay a substantial settlement with even greater financial penalties for any further such actions, but by Court Order must provide the MPAA with access to and copies of all logs and server data related to his illegal BitTorrent activities, which will provide a roadmap to others who have used LokiTorrent to engage in illegal activities.

Well several of the sites are claiming it was a "settlement" between the MPAA and Lowkee/Ed Webber. The general consensus seems to be that this entails handing over of the site, any logs and an unspecified amount of money to the MPAA and a promise not to do it again, or face further more severe sanctions. A jail sentence, or even a criminal prosecution, does not appear to be in the offing, although there *is* a court gagging order in effect. However, for a different take on what "settlement" might have been, check out this article, which should be especially of interest to the suck^H^H^H^H people who donated money.

It seems to me that he (Ed Webber) simply took the money and ran - screwing over anyone that did donate to the defense fund (I didn't thankfully).

LokiTorrent raised well over thirty thousand dollars and was getting about 680,000 - 700,000 hits a day. That has to be major advertising dollars also. If Ed did cut a deal with the MPAA, he could have made bank.

I'm not the only that thinks this it seems

Yup, I tried submitting about lokitorrent... I even provided a link to this enlightening article. But the /. editors, in all their wisdom, apparently don't think that many /.'ers will be interested in finding out about lokitorrent.