With the Record Industry Association of America (and malware) having long contributed to the demise of file sharing protocols like Limewire, digital music downloaders have switched their focus to the popular open source realm of torrents.  One of the most popular indexes is isoHunt, which lists nearly half a million torrents in its own database and another 33 million peers.  Because of this popularity, it’s one of the first victims of the RIAA and MPAA’s attempt to shut down torrents.  As a result, this morning isoHunt is offline.

Not long ago, isoHunt founder Gary Fung appeared on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) news source The National.  In that interview, Fung explained how the BitTorrent world could become a legitimate distributor of all internet media.

Unfortunately, it seems neither the RIAA nor MPAA agree.  It’s become very public that both have openly requested that Fung shut down isoHunt.  Sources are citing this pressure as a possible reason for isoHunt’s comatose state.  A spokesperson for isoHunt revealed that the site’s internet service provider pulled the plug without warning yesterday.

Is this the start of a new trend?  Even as supporters of torrents cry that it’s open source and completely different from Limewire, Kazaa, and Napster (all R.I.P.), it seems someone – be it the RIAA, MPAA or both – are finding a way to disrupt this activity.