TorrentSpy Loses Case Against MPAA
Written by Ernesto on December 18, 2007A Los Angeles court decided against TorrentSpy in their ongoing legal battle with the MPAA and terminated their case. According to the ruling, TorrentSpy was sanctioned for destructing evidence.
The court ruled that TorrentSpy tampered with evidence as they deleted infringing forum threads, deleted and renamed categories and subcategories that referred to copyrighted material. On top of this, TorrentSpy allegedly deleted IP addresses of its users, something that was apparently considered to be evidence. The court explained that “although termination of a case is a harsh sanction appropriate only in extraordinary circumstance, the circumstances of this case are sufficiently extraordinary to merit such a sanction.”
The MPAA already claims a victory, but Justin Bunnell, founder of TorrentSpy does not want to give up yet. He told News.com in a response: “It’s not like they proved their case. It’s not like they proved that TorrentSpy infringed copyright, I think we have a lot of grounds for appeal and we’ll pursue it vigorously.”
John Malcolm, Executive Vice President and Director of Worldwide Anti-Piracy Operations for the MPAA said in a response to the ruling: “The court clearly recognized that defendants engaged in evidence destruction because they knew that such evidence would prove damaging to them. The sole purpose of TorrentSpy and sites like it is to facilitate and promote the unlawful dissemination of copyrighted content. TorrentSpy is a one-stop shop for copyright infringement and we will continue to aggressively enforce our members’ rights
to stop such infringement.”
To get a more “balanced” view we asked Andrew Norton, a spokesman for the US Pirate Party for a response, and he said: “This case shows again the need for radical reform in the US legal system, as well as educating our judges to deal with modern technology. This is not the 1970s, where the basic underpinnings and mechanics of technologies were readily understandable by the layman, but require significant knowledge in the technologies involved. Perhaps it is time we had specific courts with jurists who are kept upto date on technological progress, so that justice can be sought, rather than judgments based on which side has the most lyrical attorney.”
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. TorrentSpy, once the most visited BitTorrent site on the Internet has taken some serious hits from the MPAA and this ruling doesn’t make it easier. In October we reported that TorrentSpy’s traffic, and thus their revenue have plunged after they banned US visitors, and it is not likely that the movie studios will back off the site shuts down completely.
To be continued…
Previously: BitTorrent Launches Ad Supported Streaming
Next: New MPAA Pirate-Sniffing Canines, All the Way from Ireland
103 Responses
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anyone care to comment who actually developed the first home pc so we can all bitch and moan like this and have the MPAA up our ass…… give u a clue it WASNT an american.
merry Xmas all :)
big up to all torrent indexers
…..trackers……..uploaders….
torrent client developers……kind hosts for allowing ppl like demonoid….portal….spy…..box to dump there files on their servers….lastly big up to all downloaders long may we reign.
TIP OF THE DAY……DONT HOST UR SITES IN THE US.
TIP OF THE YEAR….BACK UP ALL UR DATA SO WHEN UR SERVERS ARE DRAGGED INTO COURT U CAN UPLOAD IN A FRIENDLY NATION
big up to all torrent indexers
…..trackers……..uploaders….
torrent client developers……kind hosts for allowing ppl like demonoid….portal….spy…..box to dump there files on their servers….lastly big up to all downloaders long may we reign.
TIP OF THE DAY……DONT HOST UR SITES IN THE US.
TIP OF THE YEAR….BACK UP ALL UR DATA SO WHEN UR SERVERS ARE DRAGGED INTO COURT U CAN UPLOAD IN A FRIENDLY NATION AND GET ME BACK DOWNLOADING QUICK SHARP
will torrentspy go down like loki did?
FUCK MPAA
Hey there Mr. Know it alls:
The world wide web is NOT the internet. The INTERNET is the connected network of servers/ pcs/ switches and routers that facilitates the http://WWW.
WWW is NOT the internet. The US army invented the internet, that wonderful English bloke merely invented something usefull for it to network, hence, the web.
What are they teaching you guys in school?
———
[quote]
The Internet protocol suite is a collection of standards and protocols organized into layers so that each layer provides the foundation and the services required by the layer above. In this scheme, the Internet consists of the computers and networks that handle Internet Protocol (IP) data packets. Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) depends on IP and solves problems like data packets arriving out of order or not at all. Next comes Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which is an application layer protocol. It runs on top of TCP/IP and provides user agents, such as web browsers, with access to the files, documents and other resources of the World Wide Web (WWW). More generally, the Internet is the world-wide network holding most data communications together, while the World-Wide Web is just one of many applications that the Internet can be used for.
[/quote]
[quote]
With so many different network methods, something was needed to unify them. Robert E. Kahn of DARPA and ARPANET recruited Vint Cerf of Stanford University to work with him on the problem. By 1973, they had soon worked out a fundamental reformulation, where the differences between network protocols were hidden by using a common internetwork protocol, and instead of the network being responsible for reliability, as in the ARPANET, the hosts became responsible. Cerf credits Hubert Zimmerman, Gerard LeLann and Louis Pouzin (designer of the CYCLADES network) with important work on this design.[5]
At this time, the earliest known use of the term Internet was by Vinton Cerf, who wrote:
“ Specification of Internet Transmission Control Program. ”
“Request for Comments No. 675″ (Network Working Group, electronic text (1974) [6]
With the role of the network reduced to the bare minimum, it became possible to join almost any networks together, no matter what their characteristics were, thereby solving Kahn’s initial problem. DARPA agreed to fund development of prototype software, and after several years of work, the first somewhat crude demonstration of a gateway between the Packet Radio network in the SF Bay area and the ARPANET was conducted. On November 22, 1977[7] a three network demonstration was conducted including the ARPANET, the Packet Radio Network and the Atlantic Packet Satellite network—all sponsored by DARPA. Stemming from the first specifications of TCP in 1974, TCP/IP emerged in mid-late 1978 in nearly final form. By 1981, the associated standards were published as RFCs 791, 792 and 793 and adopted for use. DARPA sponsored or encouraged the development of TCP/IP implementations for many operating systems and then scheduled a migration of all hosts on all of its packet networks to TCP/IP. On 1 January 1983, TCP/IP protocols became the only approved protocol on the ARPANET, replacing the earlier NCP protocol.[8]
[/quote]
feel free to actually read the entire wikk entry before you come here sounding silly.
US invented the ‘internet’ the brits invented the WWW which is merely 1 application of the internet.
@ Destruction of
When you slam us so called “typical Americans”, you sound like one of those brain washed douche-bags that buy into media stereotyping and the likes of.
If anything, the world needs to block sheep such as yourself from the net. You come across as a “typical dumbass”.
[quote comment="243783"]
US invented the ‘internet’ the brits invented the WWW which is merely 1 application of the internet.[/quote]
In the context that the OP intended it, the ‘internet’ can only mean the ‘WWW’.
After all, simps like him use that sector of the ‘net exclusively. I can’t see him using simple FTP, let alone NNTP, or some similarly ‘exotic’ protocol.
=]
Here’s a community blogging site for downloading software, music and everything else for free. Make money too!
http://www.providings.com/
IT WAS WRITTEN ON WIKIPEDIA, SO IT MUST BE TRUE.
first of all, mpaa is just trying to play the blame game, second i would be amaized if they actually knew how torrents actually work@!? “ohh yes torrents, since torrentspy ACTUALLY has the files on their servers! “wtf is that all these lawyers should read a torrent manual b4 they start talking all this shit, hosting botnets to files has never been illegal, how can it if sites like google, you tube and a bunch of other host copywrited material EVERY SINGLE DAY!!! LEGALY!!
again, stupid american mentality
and to raiders
destruction is naming AMERICAN IDIOTS, if you are actually stupid enough to thoughfully put yourself in that category, then destruction has a point, other wise HES NOT TALKING ABOUT YOU!!!
this is the mentality of a retard, say americans are retards, and some ppl (just cause he said americans) put themselves into that category automatically
thats the meaning of stupidity and ignorance, which is why this MPAA shit is going on to begin with,
so i know raider, you are not like the ppl i stated above…right?
filesharer are not thieves
we’re mini version of robin hood that helps the poor
what’s bad for the rich = illegal
what’s good for the poor= illegal
what’s good for the rich=legal
whats bad for poor=legal
one man’s treasure is another man’s trash
don’t be an idiot, share whatever you like…
if you enjoy being a slave then enjoy buying these useless garbage that cost next to nothing to reproduce.
[quote comment="244584"]filesharer are not thieves
we’re mini version of robin hood that helps the poor
what’s bad for the rich = illegal
what’s good for the poor= illegal
what’s good for the rich=legal
whats bad for poor=legal
one man’s treasure is another man’s trash
don’t be an idiot, share whatever you like…
if you enjoy being a slave then enjoy buying these useless garbage that cost next to nothing to reproduce.[/quote]
Whilst I appreciate the sentiment, your view is a trifle over-simplistic.
Also, the media may well “cost next to nothing to REPRODUCE”, but that’s certainly not the case for the original PRODUCTION of the product (e.g. Multi-million dollar movie budgets)…
[quote comment="242501"]John Malcolm, Executive Vice President and Director of Worldwide Anti-Piracy Operations for the MPAA
Can someone find out how much this guy gets paid?
Would love to know how much he is stealing from artists.[/quote]
Can someone assasinate this guy?
Pay me enough…
If you ever see someone from the MPAA or RIAA, punch them in the face.
I know i will =]
I am really beginning to hate my Country. I even served in the military. Im starting to regret that decision… Thats why im voting for Ron Paul… He will give everything back to us…
RON PAUL!!!
Torrentspy are pussies
Why did they block access to US
You can easily ignore those mpaa whores
torrentspy sucks imho
they are coward
they got what they deserved
for caving into the demand of those who threaten them
The court are owned by mpaa/riaa
You cannot win!
the system is fuckup.
[quote comment="245354"]I am really beginning to hate my Country. I even served in the military. Im starting to regret that decision… Thats why im voting for Ron Paul… He will give everything back to us…
RON PAUL!!![/quote]
ITYM: RuPaul…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RuPaul
mheh-heh
at Otakon or comment #85
Honestly dude. if you care that much about what an “American Idiot” said. if you care enough to be angry over what some 12 year old kid said. then you have some issues. so whos the idiot getting serious over and random internet conversation. whos the idiot who thinks that his random little quote will actually make a difference. newflash. if you want to get serious and make a difference. get off you ass.
All you mofo’s are funny. Long live BitTorrent!!! The Seeder Bitches!!!
@ everyone aruguing over who started the internet, it was Al Gore who initiated the internet!
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/03/09/president.2000/transcript.gore/
quote: “During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet.” LOL
And to all the Euro trash talk about Americans, yeah our government sucks, most of the populace is uneducated to the point of stupidity, and we consider newsworthy things like the 16 yr old sister of some stupid twit that shows her twat to the world got knocked up by her 19 yr old boyfriend, but if it were not for us “ugly Americans” most of you would be speaking German at best or dead at worst. Yeah I know that was a long time ago, but is still true none the less. Quit blaming the American “people” for the worlds (your) troubles. Try owning up to your own resposibilities for a change.
Give Pizza Chants!
Rock On Ernesto and file sharers of the world!
P.S. George Bush is not from Texas, just lives here. Not our choice!
YOU CAN STILL USE TORRENT SPY EVEN IF YOU ARE IN THE USA!!! Get a free proxy like tor and your ip address shows up as european…You can download what you want to from there (I DO IT ALL THE TIME!!!)
just download “the onion router” then install the add-on for firefox called “tor button”…I swear to God you can still use the site!
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