TorrentSpy loses Calif. copyright lawsuit
Updated at 1:30 p.m. PST with more comments and background.
A federal judge has ruled against the BitTorrent indexing service TorrentSpy.com saying that its hiding and destruction of evidence made a fair trial impossible.
A Los Angeles court agreed with the Motion Picture Association of America's attorneys that the extraordinarily harsh sanction of terminating the case was necessary because TorrentSpy operators' actions impacted the ability for the movie studios to prove its case.
"The court finds that plaintiffs have suffered prejudice, to the extent that a rightful decision is not possible," the ruling said.
"Defendants' conduct during discovery in this case has been obstreperous," the court concluded. "They have engaged in widespread and systematic efforts to destroy evidence and have provided false testimony under oath in an effort to hide evidence of such destruction."
TorrentSpy operators intentionally modified or deleted directory headings naming copyrighted titles and forum posts that explained how to find specific copyrighted works; concealed IP addresses of users; and withheld the names and addresses of forum moderators, the court found. They had earlier been fined $30,000 for violations of discovery orders and were warned of severe sanctions if they continued to ignore the orders.
The court's decision is a "significant victory for the major Hollywood studios," John Malcolm, executive vice president and director of worldwide antipiracy operations for the Motion Picture Association of America, said in a statement. Illegal copying and bootlegging costs the industry $11 billion globally, according to the MPAA.
TorrentSpy's San Francisco-based attorney Ira Rothken disagreed with the findings and called the terminating ruling "draconian in nature and unfair." He said he does not believe any data was intentionally destroyed and said some actions were taken to protect the privacy of TorrentSpy users.
Now all TorrentSpy can do is argue over the amount of damages, Rothken said. The company will appeal the decision, he said.
"It's not like they proved their case. It's not like they proved that TorrentSpy infringed copyright," said Justin Bunnell, founder of TorrentSpy. "I think we have a lot of grounds for appeal and we'll pursue it vigorously."
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper came last week and was formally entered by the court clerk on Monday. The studios sued TorrentSpy in February 2006, alleging that the site promotes and contributes to online copyright infringement.
This summer, TorrentSpy blocked access by U.S. visitors with this alert: "Sorry, but because you are located in the USA you cannot use the search features of the Torrentspy.com website."
TorrentSpy is maintaining its site internationally, with servers located in The Netherlands, Rothken said. "As a practical matter it is business as usual for the site because it is unlikely that a U.S. court could impact international use."
CNET News.com's Declan McCullagh contributed to this report.
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service, and the Associated Press. E-mail Elinor.
Uhm,IANAL, but the MPAA can't prove their case because Torrentspy intentionally destroyed evidence during the discovery process. Now the MPAA doesn't have to prove their case. Most likely the judge isn't going to go easy on Torrentspy because of their tampering.
the MPAA and the RIAA. No matter who loses we win. :-)
With sites like TorrentSpy popping up, this killed the trend of pirates profiting off of this loophole. You never saw gypsy's out selling them after broadband swept through.
With all these new lawsuits against this stuff, it has forced the average user out of the picture and once again pirates are out selling the same stuff for big bucks on the street.
Police in the various other nations could care less. Pirates make a mint. The people STILL get to watch their favourite shows early, and without commercials.
Besides, within a few weeks, you ALWAYS see a new site popping up offering the same, if not better services, outside of US jurisdiction, to take the place of the site they go after. The masses will find it soon enough, pirate sales go down and downloads go up, then the cycle repeats.
Looks to me like the REAL pirates, the ones making real profit, clean up every time the MPAA/RIAA go after online sites to stop people getting stuff for 'free'.
So really who wins?
To decrease piracy:
1. Invest in downloaded services. Make sure people CAN buy and download movies.
2. Offer shows & movies at reasonable and affordable prices
3. Release the shows and movies at the same time. Don't release in the U.S. and wait 6 months to release in Asia and Europe, because the pirates will fill the gap.
As for being "greedy", suppose you created a movie or CD, and you didn't get a profit from your hard work because people were copying it without paying for it? Or suppose you opened a department store and people kept breaking in and stealing things? Would you consider yourself "greedy" for going after the people who were ripping you off?
It's swell that they stopped their service to US customers. That does nothing to compensate for what the MPAA believes to be their past wrongdoing.
I don't like either the MPAA or the RIAA but face it that's what it was being used for and that's illegal.
If you don't have a problem with that will you have a problem with me stealing items from your house? Any difference?
Only the thieves will disagree so hammer me down like a thief will.
If you make profit from sharing the files (i.e. selling them), now that's a completely different issue. Here, you're actually making profit from something that isn't yours.
And you're also making some broad generalizations here. Only thieves will disagree? I doubt it. Copyright infringement is not theft, no matter how hard the MPAA tries to equate the two. Theft is when something is actually taken. When you're copying DVD's, you're not actually taking anything from the MPAA.
Anyway, I doubt file-sharing actually saps away bandwidth from other users, unless the connection is shared, like in public café where things like this shouldn't happen anyways.
- With a thieving mindset, just what do you expect?
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by WJeansonne
December 23, 2007 11:10 AM PST
- It's not the least bit surprising that a burglar tool company would go so far as destroying evidence. What do you expect from characters like these?
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