news - torrentspy penalty.

A clear message to all torrent websites hosted on the US soil was sent all over the world today: A federal judge is hitting the shuttered TorrentSpy service with a $111 million penalty for facilitating the infringement of thousands of copyrighted works. U.S. District Judge Florence -Marie Cooper in Los Angeles, ruling in a case brought by the Motion Picture Association of America, said site operator Justin Bunnell and associates must pay the maximum $30,000 for “each of the 3,699 infringements shown.” The case, producing what is among the largest fines in copyright history, was bolstered after the MPAA allegedly paid a hacker $15,000 for internal TorrentSpy e-mails and correspondence.

“This substantial money judgment sends a strong message about the illegality of these sites,” MPAA Chairman Dan Glickman said in a statement. TorrentSpy, a U.S.-based torrent tacking service, shuttered in March after it lost its case against the MPAA. TorrentSpy did not lose on the merits, but defaulted after it failed to produce internal records. No U.S. case has squarely addressed the legalities of BitTorrent tracking services, although one case is nearing a resolution. Judge Cooper ordered TorrentSpy permanently shuttered. TorrentSpy attorney Ira Rothken was not immediately available for comment. He has appealed the default order to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
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( the MPAA allegedly paid a hacker $15,000 for internal TorrentSpy e-mails and correspondence.) <----- that sux.

Dang.......that sux

EDIT: just looked at the website



Copy and paste for full size

Code:

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t145/bretteoz/untitled-1.png

ALSO found more

TorrentSpy, one of the world’s largest torrent dump sites, has been ordered by a federal judge to monitor its users in order to create detailed logs of their activities which must then be handed over to the MPAA.

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According to CNET News.com. federal judge Jacqueline Chooljian requested that Torrentspy (what’s in a name) must start creating logs detailing their user’s activities. This, despite the site’s privacy policy which states they will never monitor their visitors without consent.

Understandably, this is a worrying move by the court - even more so when one considers these logs must then be turned over to the MPAA. This is believed to be the first time a judge has ordered a defendant to log visitor activity and then hand over the information to the plaintiff. The decision - arrived at last month but under seal - could force sites that are defendants in a law suit to track the actions of their visitors.

The owners have been granted a stay of the order in order to make an appeal, which must be filed by June 12, says Ira Rothken, TorrentSpy’s attorney.

“It is likely that TorrentSpy would turn off access to the U.S. before tracking its users,” said Rothken. “If this order were allowed to stand, it would mean that Web sites can be required by discovery judges to track what their users do even if their privacy policy says otherwise.”

This action follows MPAA action in 2006 against several BitTorrent sites, TorrentSpy included. According to the MPAA, Torrentspy helps others commit copyright infringement by directing people to sites which enable them to download copyright material, an offense claims the MPAA, of secondary copyright infringement.

At the time, Rothken said “It [TorrentSpy] cannot be held ‘tertiary’ liable for visitors’ conduct that occurs away from its web search engine”. TorrentSpy claims it did nothing illegal and suggested the MPAA should sue Google.

An attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation referred to the order to demand a defendant log visitor activity and then hand over the information to the plaintiff as “unprecedented.” He continued “In general, a defendant is not required to create new records to hand over in discovery. We shouldn’t let Web site logging policies be set by litigation”

One way or another, it seems that the MPAA is determined to obtain information about TorrentSpy and its users. A complaint issued by TorrentSpy suggests the MPAA paid a hacker $15,000 to steal e-mail correspondence and trade secrets. The hacker admitted that this was true.

damn more of these places goin down

thats not good

torrentspy used to be pretty decent

and yeah brett that message has been up there for agess

Yeh i know, thats because there not allowed to open the site up again

yeah, it sucks...... but tbh torrent iz slow anyways.. i still like thepiratebay and mininova, they're the best i reckon

well ive never had it oh well

Chris wrote:yeah, it sucks...... but tbh torrent iz slow anyways.. i still like thepiratebay and mininova, they're the best i reckon

Yeh but the the torrents are way too slow, rapidshare is much better, anyway no more discussion about *warez

~Moving to recycle bin. As bretteo said, no more warez talk Don't wanna be getting in any trouble do we!