TorrentSpy Slapped with $110 Million Judgement
Written by Ernesto on May 07, 2008TorrentSpy has been ordered to pay a $110 million fine by a federal judge in Los Angeles. The BitTorrent site was found guilty on the charges of copyright infringement of several movie studios represented by the MPAA.
This default judgment is the result of an ongoing court case between the MPAA and Valence Media, TorrentSpy owner Justin Bunnel’s company, that started early 2006.
It is uncertain at this point whether TorrentSpy will appeal.
Unsurprisingly, MPAA’s Dan Glickman was very pleased with the outcome of the case that lasted over two years, as he said:
“This substantial money judgment sends a strong message about the illegality of sites. The demise of TorrentSpy is a clear victory for the studios and demonstrates that such pirate sites will not be allowed to continue to operate without facing relentless litigation by copyright holders.”
“The claims made by the MPAA in this case don’t stand up to any sort of scrutiny,” says Andrew Norton, head of the US Pirate Party in a response. “It is also clear that our judicial system urgently needs some unbiased education in modern technical matters, as anyone that has watched this case knows the judge is out of her depth. What chance does justice have in that situation?”
In 2006 TorrentSpy was more popular than any other BitTorrent site, but this changed quickly in August 2007, when a federal judge ordered TorrentSpy to log all user data. The judge ruled that TorrentSpy had to monitor its users in order to create detailed logs of their activities, and hand these over to the MPAA.
In a response to this decision - and to ensure the privacy of their users - TorrentSpy decided that it was best to block access to all users from the US. This led to a huge decrease in traffic and revenue.
This was not enough for the MPAA, who argued that TorrentSpy had ignored the court decision. The legal battle continued, and this lead to a preventative closure of the site by Justin, to protect the privacy of its users.
UPDATE - Wired have the judgement available in their coverage here
UPDATE - TorrentSpy will appeal the decision.
Previously: Test: Does Your ISP Slow Down BitTorrent Traffic?
Next: MPAA Demands $15 Million from The Pirate Bay
159 Responses
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well that sucks.
Not too much of a blow. The fine was more for not cooporating with the first court judgement. Unlucky but well done TS for trying to do the best thing for it’s users.
Truly an epic fail amongst a sea of fails.
Who cares if ur first.. So what where the grounds for the fine? was it for ignoring the earlier court ruling or what? What evidence did the MPAA have.. Slightly more informative articles TF!!
that was the first site i used when i started torrenting, sucked hard at the end of its life though, alas sad to see it go
The main reason they got found guilty is because they used to actually have catagories sections like CAM TS TC DVDSCR etc etc, I remember when they dissaperead and i wondered why then it came to light that they had been took to court so they quickly removed these but it looks like they wasnt quick enough.
bloody hell… 110 million dollar fine! Suck to be honest! death to MPAA!
well, he can declare bankrupcy and the mpaa with never see a goddamned dime.
they’re still killing themselves
That..
That really sucks.
No donation fund?
Ok and TorentSpy is supposed to pay this fine how? I know BT sites that create a lot of traffic can make some decent cash but $110,000,000. I live in the U.S. and I say that we really,really suck.
Fuck you MPAA Communists.
No way that fine will actually get paid. It is absurdly high and only meant to serve as a fear tactic to other torrent sites. Fortunately, for every torrent site they shut down, many more exist, and people will continue to find ways to share files without the big-brother oversight of the MPAA.
I also applaud TorrentSpy’s effort to maintain privacy in an increasingly public world.
What a disgrace from the USA judical system. A system based to serve the fat cats like the MPAA. How is the amount fined representitive to the case? You wonder as well if these judges in cases like these have the expertise to make a judgement.
What a ridiculous fine! Does the MPAA really expect TorrentSpy to pay that much when there’s no way they have anywhere near that amount of money.
“The claims made by Andrew Norton, head of the US Pirate Party, don’t stand up to any sort of scrutiny. Anyone that has watched this case knows the judge - Florence-Marie Cooper - is FEMALE AND THEREFORE NOT A HE.”
“The main reason they got found guilty is because they used to actually have catagories sections like CAM TS TC DVDSCR etc etc”
No, the main reason they got found guilty is because they destroyed evidence and retained IP information when they said they didn’t. Anyone who ever though TSpy was there ‘on behalf of the community’ was an idiot. They were always the most money-grabbing portal out there. All those ads with the skanky girls and pop-ups and whatever…. No wonder everyone fled to Mininova who at least give the impression of caring about their users, however much cash they might be bringing in.
“No, the main reason they got found guilty is because they destroyed evidence”
Thats exactly what i said!!!
They deleted the catagories from there site, which is destroying evidence. This was one of the MAIN prosections evidence as it showed they was specifically aimed at pirated/illegal sources.
This case and every other case about the MPAA isnt about fines or court awards. Its a massive FUD campaign designed to make users “think twice” about sharing copyrighted materials.
The epic fail comes in 3 parts:
1. The MPAA did more for to advertise Torrents and their use to mainstream than the internet or geeks ever did. lulz
2. The courts and by extension the law making bodies are so technologically ignorant, its nearly impossible for the judges to administer justice. How can justice be served if everyone involved is alot like Ted Stevens in the techo arena.. *very sad face*
3. In America, money = right. *angry*
Not to kick TorrentSpy when they’re down, but here is an abject lesson on why you NEVER HOST A BLOG, FORUM, TRACKER, ETC. ON A SERVER WITHIN THE US. Always host overseas so you can tell the MPAA to go f*ck themselves.
Even news sites like TorrentFreak (hosted in Chicago) should avoid US-based servers. Not to mention W*rdPress.
[quote comment="378897"]Fuck you MPAA Communists.[/quote]
It’s called “capitalists”.
Money talks!
Do I smell corruption?
Just a little too much leaning in their favor.
The US is mostly one sided when it comes to this and we will continue to see this. I am glad other countries are not so quick to jump on the bandwagon.
It will be a cold day in hell before I ever spend any hard earned money on the crap they produce.
F$CK the MPAA/RIAA and all they represent.
A bunch of horses as*es spewing nothing but bulls&it!!
[quote comment="378908"]“The claims made by Andrew Norton, head of the US Pirate Party, don’t stand up to any sort of scrutiny. Anyone that has watched this case knows the judge - Florence-Marie Cooper - is FEMALE AND THEREFORE NOT A HE.”[/quote]
Thats my bad actually, I wrote the quote down, and mis-typed my own handwriting (and if you had ever seen my handwriting, you’d know how bad it was). Quote fixed.
Did the judge raise her pinky to the corner of her mouth when she came up with a number?
This is a big loss for the battle of free information.
110M… did they ever got to make that much money 0.0
Its sad… a win for the Mafiaa, even though hopefully they will never see a dime.
The worse part is, they actually see this as a big win, not as another nail in their coffin because no matter how many sites go down, or if they even managed to shut down every torrent site on the planet, the millions of users who have gotten the wonderful taste of free sharing are just going to either use their brains to build better encrypted networks or will use new networks that others have built… it cannot be stopped without bringing down the net but these feking dinosaurs just dont see it.
Torrenting might be the most popular right now and the fastest growing but as history (Napster 0.1, kazaa) has shown us, its just a passing thing and the next big file sharing app is on its way… and the next .. and the next etc
Even if the Mafiaa find Aladdin and convince his genie to make torrenting disappear, they will be running out of wishes before stopping all filesharing networks… including the oldest… IRC.
http://www.ezee.se/
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