Ihub2 Follows Grokster, Goes Dead

A peer-to-peer filing sharing network used by college students to download music and movies over academia's ultra-fast Internet2 network shut down Tuesday, joining Grokster in the ranks of those closed under legal pressure from the entertainment industry.

The i2hub site has been shuttered, and now only shows a mostly-blank page, the words "Remember i2hub" superimposed over a cryptic graphic, and the line "R.I.P. 03.14.2004 - 11.14.2005."

Ihub2, which debuted in March, 2004, was primarily run by student volunteers, and catered to the college crowd at universities with Internet2 access. The network was used to swap digital copies of movies and music.

Ihub2 followed Grokster, which shut down last week after losing a before the Supreme Court this summer. The Court ruled that peer-to-peer services could be held responsible for copyright theft and infringement.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) had filed more than 600 lawsuits against unnamed ihub2 users at 39 schools over the last year.

Other file-sharing networks which have folded or mutated under pressure include WinMX and eDonkey; the latter morphed into a closed network. Other notable P2P networks, including LimeWire and BearShare, remain in operation.