I2hub Shutdown Due to Legal Pressure

djabbour writes "I2hub, the only p2p client that catered to internet2 users has shutdown today due to legal concerns. A few hours ago, any user on i2hub got a message which read 'RIP 11/14/2005. It was a good run. Forced to shut down by the industry.' The i2hub site has been shutdown, and new clients can no longer login to the i2hub server."

Comments

I'll certainly miss it.

[AndrewSchaefer]

Does this mean I get a refund on my VIP membership? ;) Seriously though, I2hub was an awesome project while it lasted. The whole point of this network was to bring together college students using highspeed networks. While some students chose to share copyrighted files, a lot of others uses I2hub for legitimate and semi-scholarly purposes. I can't tell you how many times I've helped kids with their C++ and Java questions, found good game competitors, and reconnected with old friends. The whole point of the I2 network is to see what researchers and academics can do with large amounts of bandwidth. I2hub certainly explored that question. So... what's next?

RIP

[Professr3]

I was one of the ops on i2hub, and it was used for many legal purposes as well as the file-sharing. It will be missed, but RIAA can't get us all, no matter how hard they try.

It's only a matter of time.

[Devil's BSD]

It's only a matter of time before some college student starts hosting another Internet2-only DC++ server out of his/her dorm room. I personally have one restricted to the University of Kentucky IP block. The music industry doesn't seem to realize especially after napster that for every P2P network it shuts down, three more spring up.

But another concern is about the future of P2P. Grokster shut down last week, now i2hub has been forced out... what's next? BitTorrent? Kazaa? Ares?

Re:It's only a matter of time.

[shmlco]

"...means it cannot be shutdown with the legal pressure of a single company attacking another."

Like, say, legally telling a large ISP to detect and kill the traffic running over its backbones?

Repeat after me. The internet is not anonymous. Traffic, traffic patterns, protocols, and content can and will be tracked. BT will be legally shut down once they analyze the numbers and determine that only 5% of its traffic consists of those "legitimate" linux distros.

'Course hackers, cause they think they're so smart, will counter with another protocol... while will suffer the same fate. Soon a blanket order covering all illegitimate P2P use will be put into effect and enforced by ISPs, shutting down access and bouncing people off the net when they see it pop up.

Downloading and owning said software will also be illegal. College nets will be monitored, because not to do so will endanger federal grant money, as well as getting the school kicked off the backbone if they don't.

Watch. We're well into the first phase.

All because a bunch of jerks were too cheap to pay for the music they actually wanted to listen to...

working with i2hub

[tdmg]

I was a rep for i2hub on the UMass campus (UMass is where the founder Wayne Chang went to school and i2hub was based out of Amherst). Working with Wayne was quite an experience. He was constantly thinking of new ideas and strategies. I have no doubt he'll be successful in the future. However, Wayne needed money to take the RIAA to court, and even with a solid defense he wouldn't have a chance without the resources.

The students I collaborated with on i2hub were some of the more motivated and intelligent students I know. I'm sure that their support and campus networking will help foster bigger and better projects in the future. Over 500 of the more active i2hub users still chat every day on IRC, which is a testament to the strength of the i2hub community. I hate to say this, but i2hub marketed itself as a "student collaborative network" but the closure of the hub by the RIAA might just prove to force i2hub into the true collaborative network we had envisioned.

Legal Usage != Majority

[LithiumX]

As much as I agree with you that banning open P2P is little different from banning any recording device, I believe it's wishfull thinking to believe that the majority of P2P users are not pirating. While there is a wealth of uncopyrighted content (from hillarious amature videos made purely to entertain the masses to no-name bands who want exposure), it has always seemed to me that almost all the content I've seen on the various networks I've perused, and the contents of the shared directories I've seen, are almost exclusively copyrighted music and movies. There are many exceptions, but I believe that is a minority. The main legal usage is most likely from peer-distributed software (such as WOW updates, etc), and given time legal usage WILL exceed any other use as use of these networks for efficient content distribution continues to spread into the mainstream.

I have no figures to back that up, and find most of the figures I've seen from both sides highly suspect. But from everything I've seen on p2p, everything I've heard from people using p2p networks, and all my personal experience in general, anyone would be hard pressed to convince me that the majority of p2p users are obedient law-abiding responsible citizens who's intentions (and hard drives) are wholly pure. It's human nature to take what you can get, when there's little guilt involved (and let's face it - who feels THAT guilty about downloading, especially those of us with a large collection of legally-purchased cd's and dvd's?).

That said, legislation and judgements aimed at restricting and even banning p2p are no different from big radio's attempts to block tape recorders throughout the 70's, or the even more brute-force attempts by Disney and others to block the sale of VCRs to the public in the early 80's... or attempts to "tax" all cd and dvd blank sales to compensate for piracy. It's misguided, it's shortsighted, and it's almost certainly going to be shortlived as far as laws go - judging by recent history.