TorrentSpy to Appeal in MPAA Court Case
Written by Ernesto on February 04, 2009TorrentSpy, once the most frequently visited BitTorrent site, has appealed the ruling in their case against the MPAA. Last year, they were ordered to pay a $110 million fine after the court terminated the case, but TorrentSpy’s lawyer Ira Rothken believes that the issues at stake warrant an appeal.
For years, TorrentSpy has been a well known player in the BitTorrent community. In 2006 the site attracted more visitors than any other BitTorrent site, but this quickly changed in 2007 after a federal judge ruled that the site had to log all user data.
The judge ruled that TorrentSpy had to monitor its users in order to create detailed logs of their activities. Even worse, the BitTorrent site was ordered to hand these logs over to the MPAA. TorrentSpy owner Justin Bunnel didn’t want to give up the privacy of the site’s users, and decided that it was best to block access to all users from the US instead. In March 2008 he went further still, taking the decision to shut down completely.
“We have decided on our own, not due to any court order or agreement, to bring the TorrentSpy.com search engine to an end and thus we permanently closed down worldwide on March 24, 2008,” Bunnel wrote in a message to users of the site. A month after this decision the case against the MPAA was terminated and his company was ordered to pay a $110 million fine, which it has now appealed.
TorrentSpy’s lawyer, Ira Rothken, told CNET News, “We’re arguing the court was wrong in procedures and wrong in judgment. In a one-hour hearing regarding discovery issues, the court terminated the case and didn’t give TorrentSpy a trial. We believe the court was wrong and abused its discretion. We believe the court ordered TorrentSpy to do things that was in violation of the site’s privacy policy and we believe that the tension between the court’s discovery orders and user-privacy rights is an important issue on appeal.”
The MPAA wont be too happy that TorrentSpy hasn’t given up the fight yet. At the time, MPAA’s Dan Glickman was very pleased with the outcome of the case, as he said: “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.”
With the appeal, filed at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, TorrentSpy aim to overturn this earlier judgment, and restore hope for other BitTorrent site owners in the US.
Previously: The Pirate Bay Maps Out its Tracker Connections
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27 Responses
i hope mr. glickman understands that there are hundreds other sites like torrentspy so taking down one is not really going to change anything…
Best of luck to the TorrentSpy team
I started at TorrentSpy.. Only site I trusted when I had just started using BitTorrent.
A shame to see it go down by the greedy hands of the MAFIAA.
TorrentSpy started the Torrent Commenting Revolution!!!
he does understand that, he doesnt care, it was his chance to make a D-bag statement and he did just that.
one thing people need to understand, the fight hasnt even begun yet.. we havnt even BEGUN to think of ways around there obstacles.. its just so easy.
just wait until things get tough, just like the war on drugs.. i have a bag of weed sittin near me right now.. and im downloading movies.. so both wars are obviously pathetic and will remain so.
he does understand that, he doesnt care, it was his chance to make a D-bag statement and he did just that.
one thing people need to understand, the fight hasnt even begun yet.. we havnt even BEGUN to think of ways around there obstacles.. its just so easy.
just wait until things get tough, just like the war on drugs.. i have a bag of weed sittin near me right now.. and im downloading movies.. so both wars are obviously pathetic and will remain so.
Go MPAA!!!
torrentfreak shouldn’t allow idiotic spammers to post in the comments section…
any way… best of luck to the torrent spy team… I truly believe that the mpaa is evil and needs to be shown that they cant always win…
“Big Brother in the form of an increasingly powerful government and in an increasingly powerful private sector will pile the records high with reasons why privacy should give way to national security, to law and order [...] and the like.” – Justice William O. Douglas
I started with torrentspy, however, moved onto other bittorrent sites and search engines.
Still though, good luck TorrentSpy. MPAA, go to hell.
In summary, TorrentSpy was playing defense, and the MPAA was playing offense. TorrentSpy appeared to capitulate, but then came back to defense again.
Right now, this would probably true for the rest of file-sharing: the MPAA et cetera are playing offense, whereas the file-sharers are mostly playing defense.
The reason for all of this is due to the fact that the MPAA has more resources. It is a shame that the people who run TorrentSpy do not have more resources, like money, because if they did, then they would have more ability to fight back than they have right now.
One wonders whether this is really the best state of affairs. It must be emphasized that although the MPAA members have great amounts of money, perhaps all the file-sharers in the world collectively have more money.
best of luck guys.
MPAA’s Dan Glickman was very pleased with the outcome of the case, as he said: “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.”
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Dan you smarmey bastard.
Don’t host torrent sites in US………………………………….
but yason were free american citizens?? why the hell not??
Like the comment at number 3 I also started out with Torrentspy.
Lots of good memories and it would be good to see the TS team still doing what they can for the BT community worldwide….
Best of luck guys……
I never really liked TorrentSpy, but good luck!
Yes taking down a damn search engine has removed all pirated content from the internet.
you jackasses, when are they going after google? Huh???
type ANYTHING + Torrent into google and count the damn direct download torrent links you get.
when are THEY getting sued??
Now that Youtube is also regulated, that torrentsites are being taken down and that ThePirateBay is threatened, it is just a sign that filesharing as we know it (accesible even for those with not a lot of coumputer skills) are coming to an end.
those bastards do not bother about if theres like hundreds of other sites, they dont want to actually do anything good, they just want to sue torrentindex-siteowners so they can earn money..
greedy motherfuckers.. i will damage their buildings when im going to the states next year :D
Goodluck… torrentspy was awesome… i would like to see it up and running again
keep it phree!
I never loged out to TS.
Maybe if/when TS comes back.
My account will be there. And I might just throw up some noids torrent to post there. Like the good ole days.
If anyone knows if I can donate to TorrentSpy to help them with anything, let me know where that can be done.
Email at:
till.infinity [at] gmail [dot] com
Good luck TS i hope you kick my butt.
without a doubt Justin knows what he is doing. he has acted with wisdom and smarts throughout the court battle
you have our full support and appreciation dude. thanks for making the stand for all of us filesharers
reason 1,0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000465415614984564986849
to hate the MPAA
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