A Canoe tech article says that the owner of the isohunt search engine for bitorrent files has asked the BC Supreme court to rule on whether it violates the copyright Act.

Seems that the Canadian Recording Industry Association has demanded that he take down the links – so rather than waiting for them to take action, he went direct to the courts to ask the question.

In essence, the issue is whether this site is no different than any search engine like Google, with no responsibility over what users search for and do with it when they find what they want – or does it somehow cross a line that makes it liable for any illegal or unauthorized copying that those that use it do.

This could prove to be interesting, and could have broader copyright implications affecting things beyond bittorrent search engines.  This is the type of case than can lead to unintended consequences, so one hopes that the court will take a considered look at the issues in general and the broader consequences of a ruling.