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
157 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
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This is a taste of what happen when money people try to put appart companies made for the people, now is the time for us, support is what those conpanies like TorrentSpy need, all we can do is support them…
Shocked…………
This is great news!! I hope they do the same to all torrent sites and hopefully they start going after all you fucking thieves
[quote comment="378934"]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.
…[/quote]
As idealistic as it might sound I believe it’s impolitical to give up too much ground even though the US is a difficult territory. In extreme cases this is called anticipatory obedience which is an easy win for the adversary. That’s what the FUD tactics is implemented for.
No one else can change the US legal system or the public perception of filesharing there. The US citizens have to do that. Specially because a lot of popular culture that’s shared online is sold by US companies. If the MAFIAA is allowed to portray filesharing beeing an irresponsible act from socialistic Sweden or a pirate enterprise from an unknown island in the Caribbean it will be much harder to change public opinion about filesharing in the US.
[quote comment="378982"]This is great news!! I hope they do the same to all torrent sites and hopefully they start going after all you fucking thieves[/quote]
If you want to become a respected troll you’ll have to learn how to be more subtle.
A fair trial in Los Angeles — in the very heart of MPAA/RIAA territory?
Anyone who expected otherwise, then I have some nice land in Florida and a bridge in Brooklyn that I would like to sell to you at a good price.
thats awesome, good chunk of change too, maybe tpb will be next, we can only hope
i guess the sum is kind of symbolic.. they’ll never see a dime of it. they’ll declare bankruptcy and it’ll pretty much be the end of story. donating money directly into mpaa’s pocket insn’t such a good idea right?
i wonder how many generations it takes to pay back that kind of money, if it would be inherited.. that’d be something like 110 generations or like 5000 years..
[quote comment="378997"]thats awesome, good chunk of change too, maybe tpb will be next, we can only hope[/quote]
Sounds like you want it to happen?
Sad
[quote comment="378999"]… such a good idea right?
… like 5000 years.[/quote]
Probably right. We’ll have to see what personal responsability Justin Bunnel has to take.
By that time the rest of us will have landed on the “Planet of the Apes” and rode past the HOLLYWOOD sign buried in the beach.
P.S.
You can skip Planet of the Apes 2, 3, 4 and 5.
God is good,
can’t wait until the pirate bay goes down. theives are evil no matter how they try to justify it. why not go to work for free if you want everything to be free? ungrateful leeches and greedy worthless torrent site owners.
Follow the devil by stealing, and he will suck your soul dry. Good for them.
if i had a site hosted in a dif country and lived outside of the us id laugh in their face and tell them to fuck right off
Either they have that kind of money from their business or they don’t. If they do then they can repay it. If not, then they can’t pay. Either way I think they’ll be looking for a new line of business, or move overseas.
Why not $110 trillion? Makes as much sense. I couldn’t pay $1,000 haha
[quote comment="379028"]God is good,
can’t wait until the pirate bay goes down. theives are evil no matter how they try to justify it. why not go to work for free if you want everything to be free? ungrateful leeches and greedy worthless torrent site owners.
Follow the devil by stealing, and he will suck your soul dry. Good for them.[/quote]
Oh. Another baby troll. Are you lost in this forest and crying for your mama? Give us something to work on.
The “pirate bay goes down”, “theives are evil”, “ungrateful leeches”, “greedy worthless torrent site owners” and so on, we have already dealt with. Browse the torrentfreak archives if you are interested in the answers. There are some good ones.
Damn wonder what site is next - 110 million wow!
The location was in LA, that would classify as an unfair jurisdiction.
Why not New York, not Hollywood head quarters. Seems bias and impartial verdict is influenced by location and people.
Let’s blow up the Hollywood sign…
rip.
The rebellion will happen soon enough. When they start to get onto books and etc try to burn them all the old people from WWII era will remember hitler and vote against lot this shitt. Old people vote emass we need them on our side and soon.
If they don’t live in the us i don’t see how the mpaa could collect a dime.
[quote comment="379059"]The rebellion will happen soon enough. When they start to get onto books and etc try to burn them all the old people from WWII era will remember hitler and vote against lot this shitt. Old people vote emass we need them on our side and soon.[/quote]
Maybe. But it will have to be initiated by those who share files and a future. Old people - most people tend to vote for what they believe seems right. And since old people depend on their retirement plans to be payed out, they probably want the fortune 500 companies to do well. Hitler doesn’t matter here. We have to talk to them and argue what’s on our mind.
And about the books: “Fahrenheit 451″ by Ray Bradbury is a good read. Well, as most of the time the book offers more than the film, but the film by François Truffaut is very good as well. But you probably knew that already.
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