Los Angeles - TorrentSpy, the operator of a now-shuttered BitTorrent file-sharing hub that was sued for copyright infringement by the Motion Picture Association of America, has filed an appeal of the $111 million in damages it was ordered by a judge to pay the studios, CNET News.com reported. TorrentSpy was ordered by the judge in the case to turn over records on all of its U.S. users to the court; rather than comply, the site shut off access to U.S. users -- but ultimately decided to voluntarily shut the service down entirely during the course of the court proceedings.

"We're arguing the court was wrong in procedures and wrong in judgment," Ira Rothken, TorrentSpy's attorney, told CNET.

"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 (were) 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."

Related Links:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10156637-93.html

http://tinyurl.com/cuuwue (TorrentFreak)

http://www.torrentspy.com