MPAA Not Done With TorrentSpy Yet
Written by Ernesto on October 12, 2007Over the past months the TorrentSpy crew has made several drastic changes to their website. They have stopped hosting .torrent files, and even banned US visitors. However, this is not enough according to the MPAA who has filed another complaint and asked the judge for sanctions against the popular BitTorrent site.
In August, a federal judge ordered TorrentSpy to log all user data stored in RAM. In a response to this decision - and to ensure the privacy of their users - they decided that it was best to block access to all users from the US. However, the MPAA now argues that TorrentSpy is ignoring the court decision.
TorrentSpy, once the most visited BitTorrent site on the Internet has already taken some serious hits from the MPAA and are now facing another attempt to try and knock them out for good. Earlier this week we reported that TorrentSpy’s traffic, and thus their revenue have plunged after they banned US visitors, but it seems that the movie studios wont stop until the site shuts down completely.
In court documents obtained by CNET News.com we read: “(TorrentSpy) took steps to make the Server Log Data unavailable for the express purpose of avoiding compliance with the (court) order. This claim should be seen for what it is: another illegitimate attempt by defendants to evade authority of this court and the May 29 order.”
And to make it even worse, the MPAA has now asked the judge to rule that the .torrent links offered (not hosted) by TorrentSpy are illegal and infringing copyright - which is an absurd demand of course.
TorrentFreak asked Justin, the founder of TorrentSpy, for a response and he told us: “They are attempting to distort the fact that we have never logged user actions on the site into something entirely new and different. Lets put this into playground terms:”
PUNK: “Teacher! His friends hit me!”
TEACHER: “Did they actually hit you? How many times? When? Where?”
PUNK: “I have no idea! I think they did though , I just don’t like him!”
BOY: “I didn’t hit him. My friends never did either.”
PUNK: “Make him start tracking his friends! Where they go and what they do.”
TEACHER: “OK. Start tracking them.”
BOY: “Well since you bring it up, my friends don’t even go to his school…”
PUNK: “Waaaaahhhh! He is a meanie! Punish him!”
I guess we all know who the punk is here. Stay tuned!
Previously: Polish Pirate Party Files for Registration
Next: Anti-Piracy Organization Domain IFPI.com Now Owned by The Pirate Bay
53 Responses
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“.. I just wanna know what the fuck they’re downloading all day.”
Ahem, would you believe Linux distros?
:-)
copyright infringement is SRS BSNS
Isn’t pursuing web sites for providing an index to torrents the same as going after the phone book for providing the address to a head shop?
Lets get a few things straight.
1) USA Copyright infringement is both a civil and criminal violation. Most p2p cases are civil because it is easier to prove someone is wrong. None of that pesky “jury of peers”
and “innocent until proven guilty” stuff to deal with.
2) BitTorrent and the Search Engines like TorrentSpy are technologies. Like many technologies, they can be used for both good and bad things, which is up to the actual user. Take email as an example– you can send an email to grandma or a million spam messages. The technology is the same for both, but spam is bad and grandma is good. Is your internet provider suddenly responsible for your behavior?
3) The media companies pretty much hate any new technology. They hated the VHS, CD-ROM, and DVD. They hated the MP3 Player (if they got their way iTunes and iPod would not exist). They hate Tivo and other DVRs. They hate Internet Radio. Heck they probably hate the Internet in general.
Hollywood and all the “copyright holders” have lobbied endlessly to prevent copyrighted works from entering the public domain. The PD is a rich well from which new generations may seek inspiration. As a result we are the poorer for it. The Walt Disney Corporation have hurt american culture by doing this: Back in 1998, representatives of the Walt Disney Company came to Washington looking for help. Disney’s copyright on Mickey Mouse, who made his screen debut in the 1928 cartoon short “Steamboat Willie,” was due to expire in 2003, and Disney’s rights to Pluto, Goofy and Donald Duck were to expire a few years later.
Rather than allow Mickey and friends to enter the public domain, Disney and its friends - a group of Hollywood studios, music labels, and PACs representing content owners - told Congress that they wanted an extension bill passed.
Prompted perhaps by the Disney group’s lavish donations of campaign cash - more than $6.3 million in 1997-98, according to the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics - Congress passed and President Clinton signed the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.
The CTEA extended the term of protection by 20 years for works copyrighted after January 1, 1923. Works copyrighted by individuals since 1978 got “life plus 70″ rather than the existing “life plus 50″. Works made by or for corporations (referred to as “works made for hire”) got 95 years. Works copyrighted before 1978 were shielded for 95 years, regardless of how they were produced. This is just plain wrong.
OH so you mean to say that Hollywood and the so called ‘corporate titleholders’ are $crewing the american public by buying off the american congress so that they can continue to reap unfair financial gain? So for 4 plus generations GREEDY corporate titleholders can make money then? Ahhhh, and the public, scool children, new artists cannot draw inspiration because they would get their a$$es sued. Wow, thats wrong.
So because the “Walt Disney Corporation” so decided we will never live in our time to see the so called ‘Lost disney movie ‘Song of the South’? Gee, Walt Disneys been DEAD for what? 50 years? HOW long can they profit off of him and hold back his works? If thats not hurting the american public, freedom of speech, as well as violating some part of the bill of rights, I don’t know what is.
what MPAA want is the logs , so that they can blackmail some profit out of it. but TorrentSpy did is totally causing them to work for free. of course they angry.
These companies need to move with the times. I regualarly download entire TV series because they aren’t gonna be shown on british TV (or I can’t wait for it to be shown). The show I wanna see is available, albeit via torrent. If I could I might consider paying to download them legally from the actual tv network that owns them - if it was a reasonable fee. (Although truth be told I might not!)
Would it still be illegal if I did have an actual friend in the US to tivo it, burn it to DVD and mail it to me in the UK?
Because you only have to listen to radio shows or whatever to hear the listeners saying “OMG the new season of Lost or Prison Break etc has just started in the US. My friend has just sent me the first episode!” You know damn well that the post doesn’t work that fast and that they must have downloaded it. In fact even some of the DJ’s have said that they have seen new episodes of whatever and it has been sent in by someone who has an American friend!
wanna know something funny i think. all the torrent sites like torrentspy, which i still use in the us, is getting flammed. but sites like online cinema doesnt get even a glance by them. i havnt heard of one government action against them. they do the same thing as the torrent sites. a site that doesnt host the material but links to where thier storred. half the sites are japs. more of a “torrenttube” as u could call it. so how come they arent getting flammed by the movie industry?
oh did i mention that its all FREE. goto the site and start watching.
Rick Dublin, I do not know how you could possibly not be smart enough to know that it cannot possibly be stealing. I mean, people should not have a monopolistic control over ideas. The fact is that copyright is a MONOPOLY and that these monopolies should be gone. If I share some file, the fact is that I did not steal anything because stealing is taking things away from others, and the fact is that the original “copyright holders” still have their copy. People should not have the right to own ideas.
technically bittorrent and all p2p is a destructive technology. destructive to the old technologies and that includes systems and laws and hardware and way we live our lives
before the invention of the internal combustion engine (the automobile) how many horses were there on the streets of your city? how many are there now? the horse population has been destroyed and reduced to the playthings of the rich. destructive technologies bring about change
destructive technologies are very well understood as arbitrage opportunities (difference in price can be harnessed to profit). x years after the printing press arrived we see a quasi-global publishing authority the **AA who have cynically implemented a system of generating revenue from a change in technology. how? because the law changes very very slowly compared to technology (most lawmakers are old and do not have an iPod or a multimedia desktop or an Xbox360 or PS3 like me and you)
in time it will be demonstrated the **AA acted cynically and with malicious extortion. do you think in 10 years time we will be still talking about the **AA? LOLOL
ON TOPIC:
TorrentSpy tap dancing for time … those advertising bucks must be worth something hey Justin ;D
shame you didnt establish an anonymous tracker site outside of US jurisdiction or your model would be still alive today. did somebody mention destructive technologies?
NO NEWS:
Justin has started several torrent sites to replace the dead duck and will be around for awhile yet, only he wont be called Justin anymore, Samantha is as good a name as any
Sammy says “i am from Scandinavia, a small provence of Holland. i like all boys and i want to be a film star and save all the turtles”
meanwhile Sammy hosts her sites off-shore someplace …
So can torrentspy still call themselves torrentspy? Especially when they show this to US IPs:
Torrentspy Acts to Protect Privacy
Sorry, but because you are located in the USA you cannot use the search features of the Torrentspy.com website.Torrentspy’s decision to stop accepting US visitors was NOT compelled by any Court but rather an uncertain legal climate in the US regarding user privacy and an apparent tension between US and European Union privacy laws.
We hope you understand and will take the opportunity to visit one of these other fine websites:
Cutest College Girls
SearchAgents.com
WackyVids.com
Linkbucks.com
Hollywire.com
Teenist.com (ADULT)
61Brand.com
Nategrace.com
hugecrab.com
^
Fuck you spammer…
Torrent sites and profit… Hmm, trying to think of any torrent site I know that profits from the copyright infringement. Nope none come to mind. Though most have donation links the donations go where they’re meant to in most if not all cases, to help cover server costs.
And many the site administrators have no part in downloading/uploading torrents so they don’t profit in that manner either.
Learn to phrase things better if you meant something different. The moment a torrent site makes profit from breaking the law that takes things to a whole other level, professional piracy which only **AA has to rights to judging from these court battles.
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