Torrentspy

Judge Orders TorrentSpy to Pay MPAA $110 Million in Damages

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 7, 2008 - 12:55pm.

Los Angeles - TorrentSpy, a BitTorrent tracker site that lost a copyright infringement suit filed by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) last year, has been ordered by a federal judge to pay a massive $110 million in damages. "This substantial money judgment sends a strong message about the illegality of these sites," said Dan Glickman, chairman and CEO of the MPAA. "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."

TorrentSpy Bankrupt, Won't Pay $111M in Damages to MPAA

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 9, 2008 - 9:04am.

Los Angeles - TorrentSpy, the BitTorrent tracker that was ordered by a federal judge this week to pay the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) $111 million in copyright infringement damages, has filed for bankruptcy protection in England and will not pay up, the company's attorney, Ira Rothken, told Wired.com.

BitTorrent Tracker TorrentSpy Shuts Down for Good

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 27, 2008 - 11:50am.

Los Angeles - TorrentSpy, a site that indexed files available for download from the BitTorrent file-sharing network, and was the target of a lawsuit from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), has permanently closed down the site for all visitors worldwide, TorrentFreak reported.

MPAA Wins Copyright Suit Against TorrentSpy.com

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 18, 2007 - 9:36am.

Los Angeles - A federal judge in Los Angeles has ruled in favor of Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) member studios in their copyright infringement suits against BitTorrent index TorrentSpy.com, taking the extraordinary step of terminating the case after finding that TorrentSpy had intentionally destroyed evidence. The case will now proceed directly to the phase where damages are considered, although CNET News.com reports that TorrentSpy will appeal the decision.

MPAA Asks for Sanctions Against TorrentSpy in Copyright Case

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 11, 2007 - 8:41am.

San Francisco - The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has asked a federal judge to rule that the movie files linked to through BitTorrent search engine TorrentSpy infringe their copyrights, and also that the site has no "substantial noninfringing uses," CNET News.com reported.

File-Sharing Search Engine TorrentSpy Bans U.S. Users

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 28, 2007 - 10:59am.

San Francisco - TorrentSpy.com, the self-proclaimed "largest BitTorrent search engine," has shut off its site to U.S. users in the face of a copyright infringement lawsuit from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), CNET News.com reported.

Upcoming Fall TV Show Pilots Leaked Online

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 30, 2007 - 12:58pm.

Los Angeles - The pilot episodes from several upcoming TV series -- including NBC's "Bionic Woman" and Fox's "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" -- have been leaked onto Internet file-sharing networks, TVWeek.com reported.

P2P Search Engine TorrentSpy to Implement Copyright Filter

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 26, 2007 - 10:36am.

San Francisco - TorrentSpy, a search engine that provides links to media files available for download on the BitTorrent file-sharing network, and is defending against a copyright lawsuit from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), has announced plans to implement a filter to weed out copyrighted content, CNET News.com reported.

EFF to File Brief Supporting TorrentSpy in MPAA Lawsuit

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 21, 2007 - 4:03pm.

San Francisco - Digital civil liberties advocates the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will file a friend-of-the-court brief in support of TorrentSpy, a site that links to copyrighted downloads that has been sued by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), CNET News.com reported. A judge in the case recently ruled that temporary RAM memory on TorrentSpy's servers must be stored and turned over to the court. "This is the first time the court has found that information found only in RAM is subject to preservation," EFF senior staff attorney Fred von Lohmann told CNET. "Companies may be obliged to begin logging and producing information about conversations that occur on digital phones, which are stored on RAM. Nobody is asked to preserve records for analog phone conversations."

tags: Movies | MPAA | EFF | Torrentspy |

Judge Orders TorrentSpy to Turn Over RAM Server Data on Users

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 11, 2007 - 11:23am.

Los Angeles - TorrentSpy, a search engine that provides links to sites that track files available for download on the BitTorrent peer-to-peer file-sharing network, has been ordered by a judge to turn over information on visitors to its site stored on its servers' RAM memory, CNET News.com reported.

Wired News: MPAA Lobby Kills Calif. Bill That Outlawed "Pretexting"

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 1, 2006 - 1:08pm.
San Francisco - The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has effectively lobbied to defeat a California bill that would have outlawed "pretexting" and other deceptive practices used to obtain private information about consumers, Wired News reported on Friday.

Torrentspy Accuses MPAA of Hiring Hacker to Steal Trade Secrets

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 25, 2006 - 6:47am.
San Francisco - A file-sharing firm sued by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for copyright infringement has filed its own suit against the MPAA, claiming the movie studio trade group hired a hacker to steal corporate information, CNET News.com reported.

MPAA Sues BitTorrent Tracker Site Search Engine Torrentspy

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 28, 2006 - 11:00am.
London - The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has sued Torrentspy, a search engine that provides search results of sites providing movie downloads on the BitTorrent file-sharing network, the BBC reported. Torrentspy itself does not host any copyrighted material, but merely points to third-party sites that host bits of a large movie file, called torrents. For its part, Torrentspy has filed a motion to have the federal lawsuit dismissed in Los Angeles. "This appears to be the first case where major Hollywood studios are suing a search engine that does not even link to any files copyrighted by Hollywood. The MPAA is in essence trying to outlaw the torrent file format," Torrentspy attorney Ira Rothken told the BBC. Rothken added that the site had previously cooperated with the MPAA in removing links to certain torrent files, and "cannot be held 'tertiary' liable for visitors' conduct that occurs away from its Web search engine." The MPAA has successfully targeted a number of the larger torrent tracker sites, including SuprNova and TorrentBits, but has not yet challenged the legality of a search engine that provides links to tracker sites, like Torrentspy.