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Hollywood awarded USD110m against TorrentSpy
Thursday, May 08 2008
by Maxim Kelly


Operators of the once-popular TorrentSpy tracker have been
ordered to pay more than USD110m to Hollywood for
facilitating illegal downloads of movies and television
shows.

US District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper awarded the Motion
Picture Association of America maximum damages of USD30,000
per movie, for each of the 3,699 infringement charges brought
against TorrentSpy. All totaled, site operator Justin Bunnell
and company are obliged to pay the MPAA USD110,970,000.





That fine could yet increase if Cooper orders TorrentSpy to
pay the film lobby's attorney fees. In addition, the site
operators have been barred from being involved in any future
copyright shenanigans. Guess they won't be be raising the
cash that way. Bake sale maybe?



"This substantial money judgment sends a strong message
about the illegality of these sites," said Dan Glickman, 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."



Last March, TorrentSpy was forced to shut down the site after
losing its court battle with the MPAA. The judgment was
defaulted against the tracker after it destroyed IP log
evidence, claiming it was protecting users' privacy. The
judge ruled a fair trial had been made impossible and slapped
the tracker with a USD30,000 fine.



TorrentSpy has appealed the default ruling in the 9th US
Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.



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and its contents are copyright 2008 Situation Publishing.
Reprinted with permission.