TorrentSpy ordered to pay $110 million in damages to MPAA

After a federal judge awarded the MPAA a summary judgment against former BitTorrent tracker TorrentSpy late last year, the only question left was how much it would end up costing TorrentSpy's admins. We've got our answer, and it comes in the form of a staggering $110 million damage award.

[niall77]

wait... thats not a good lession

[Breakfast]

lol

[iheartSONY]

This is;
you spelled lession wrong! It's "lesson" not lession.

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

He hit io at the same time, it's a typo not a spelling error.

[RSX]

This isnt going to stop me downloading torrents and YES I DO DOWNLOAD TORRENTS! IM PROUD OF IT!
=)

[Kakkoii]

I love my very hard to get an account on private torrent sites :)

I use torrents to download crap I never would have paid for even if the technology didn't exist. I'm to damn poor to afford it even if I wanted to pay for it anyways.

And unlike physical things where if you take it for free, someone else will notice and say.. Hey someone stole a copy of Asian Persuasion XXX 3, that's worth $30 freaking dollars! THIEF!

When you take a copy of data, nothing is actually taken. It's like someone bought a game and put it in a cloning machine and gave you a copy lol.

[Boink]

good to know the mpaa still owns the courts and congress.

what a load of crap...

[gamesR4fun]

yeppers sad fact is Western democracy is totally owned by special interest groups until we demand accountability expect things to get even worst...

[Boink]

i'm in canada and as of yet they refuse to bow to the bullying BS of the MPAA, and RIAA. one judge actually laughed them out of court:)

[harv052]

Not quite...remember demonoid?

[EastCoastSB]

Demonoid is back up, since a few weeks ago.

[spec_ops_comm]

They really could have beaten the MPAA and set a precedence in the US if only they would have stuck to their guns. That whole forum moderator IP tracking gossip and the back-editting of threads to remove movie names was a TERRIBLE call. That just screams guilty.

It's a shame because TorrentSpy is a search engine just like Google. In terms of the law, they aren't even in a grey area, let alone wrong. But, now that a precedent has been set, the MPAA will have a much easier time suing other companies, even if it means illegally obtaining information (as they did with TorrentSpy).

I just feel real bad for the TS admins now.. How the hell are they going to come up with $110 million? I hope they had some form of insurance that covered it..

The lesson we all should learn is if you plan on hosting a Torrent tracker site, set your servers up in Sweden. They seem to be years ahead of the rest of the world in terms of technology-related laws.

[ar]

Just add filetype:torrent to your search string and Google will find it for you.

[PopEmUp]

lawyers and solicitor is like FBI man

[M337ING]

This is good. Shut down their sites, and no ones going to be pirating PC games.

[omodis420]

10 more will pop up man. And then they will get shut down. It all started with Napster. Napster gets taken down and boom you get morphius and Kaaza.

[Fux4Bux]

People shouldn't pirate games but giving corporations complete control and limiting freedom is not the way to do it.

[HuntTheWumpus]

Where is that 110 million going? Back to the filmmakers, actors and crew of these film's? I think it's going into the back pocket of the MPAA.

These people are ambulance chasers. I can hear them whining from their ivory tower. "I only have a Gulfstream 2 private jet instead of a Gulfstream 3 thanks to these pirates!"

RIAA/MPAA need to be shutdown. There is more than enough evidence of their shaddy practices and hiring of private firms to skirt around the law.

[Wil Wheaton]

exactly bubbles for you its like when metallica was crying even though they make so much bank already. Haha the south park parody was funny :P

[Whoooop]

Poor torrentspy...

That was my main site to download everything except movies.

By the way... Does anybody here has an invite to torrentleech.org?? I can't log in anymore. PM me

:)

[Spinner]

lol TL got really anal with their invites recently. I used to get like 3/week to give out.

Now I haven't gotten any in months :/

sry.

[TrevorPhillips]

stop downloading movies etc just buy them because some torrent sites are public so watch out just giving ya a warning so u wont get fined big time

[Tarmgar]

You reaLly don't get in troubLE for downloading at torrent sites. If it's out there to downLoad, then it's there. They reaLly go after the people that are the ones that upload to other people. that's why, when you download a file, be safe and don't upload to others.

[BLuKhaos]

Buy the movies or do like me and rent the movies and rip them from the disc if you like it,it is the safest way.

[Blasphemy]

They really don't go after the uploaders who have downloaded the movies they go after the people who run the sites. I upload every movie I download. If they went after normal people like me I would be in jail by now and noone would upload files.

[Wil Wheaton]

If your just downloading for your own personal use you should be ok as long as your not manufacturing and selling pirated dvd's or something. Just like the drug trade it makes more sense to go after the suppliers then the the users...

[599 US Dollars]

that sucks. f*ck the MPAA. god damn greedy jewbags. why don't these stupid f*cks go open a bank or something.

[BLuKhaos]

lmao!!

[PopEmUp]

they should but this way is legally stealing people money without any threats to them

[Skerj]

Private trackers and newsgroups are your friends, not that I condone piracy *shifty eyes*.

[omodis420]

Download a torrent of the movie "teeth". That way instead of paying 20 bucks to be scared of sex for the rest of your life, you can be scared of it for free.

DON'T WATCH THAT MOVIE IF YOU LIKE SEX!!!!!!

[Shadow Man]

Damn I google the trailer for teeth and damn i go to see that. off to the torrents.

[MicroDeath SoftStar]

damn dude , of course we like sex

[Danielson]

huh? a movie about a vagina monster, sounds good too me lol

[wibble]

How are they gonna pay that $110 million in damages?

Maybe they should start up a new torrent site to help raise the cash.

[BLuKhaos]

Did they specify which kind currency that they have to pay in?
because if they didn't then they can give 110 million in monopoly money.

[tgh machines]

well it says $110 million, which is 110 million dollars.

[dappaute]

ahhh well just put it on my 'credit' tab

[Blasphemy]

I think it's dumb TorrentSpy would have to pay any money, who's to say anyone who downloaded these movies, music or games "illegaly" would ever purchase them? I stopped buying movies and music because of torreent sites although I never bought movies anyway. I just don't see the point of me buying movies. Most of the movies I watch I watch just one time and never watch them again.

[iheartSONY]

But that doesn't mean you have to "illegally" download them.

It's called RENTING. If you only watch a movie once and never again then RENT the movie. Don't be an AZZ. Pay for what you want or what you take.

DAMN I hate cheap BASTARDZ!

*MPAA and RIAA please take a closer look into this guys "online activity".

[m-s-8-2]

@11.1

Amazing how people dont see it, eh?

That's like walking in a store, and stealing a loaf of bread. Even if you had the money, you wouldnt have bought it. It would have sat there til it's sell by date then they would have tossed it out, so they arent really losing any money.

Dont want to pay to buy/rent/see it in a theatre? ok, then dont see it. I only wish theyd ream more of these c**ts that illegally download this stuff. They're just making it more expensive for the law abiding people.

[tordavis]

I have no remorse for Pirates. I could care less what happens to people who are too cheap to pay $15.00 to purchase a DVD or $5.00 to rent. Burn in hell!

[bednet]

If you steal a loaf of bread, it's gone, if you download, the original copy is still there....it's 1s and 0s...not anything physical, hence nobody lost anything except if you think that people who download would otherwise buy...which is utter bull crap.

Lots of countries don't even have copyright laws, guess the price to live in the US is to take it in the behind and ask for more...please...most countries aren't even going to reveal the owner of an IP adress...On the other hand, I'm sure the ones getting the settlement are in desperate need of bigger yatchs.

Oh, and if you think pirates are increasing the price of things, well check again music is cheaper now than it's ever been, and that's the only thing that'll reduce piracy...fair prices...Maybe artists should start working for their money...you know actually play some music and not just selling recordings of them playing it...like it's always been for thousands of years before.

As for movies, they need to make Digital Downloads easier, faster and more convenient than downloading from torrents...now that's going to be a challenge...and make it cheap to rent.

As long as they use negative pressure on the consumer it's only going to get worst, with the younger generation very able with PCs, it's not going to stop, they need to accept that they cannot gouge the consumer anymore as the next generation (not me, I'm old) will not stand for it...the free ride's over.

[Reason]

...until TorrentSpy exhausts all its appeals. Federal judge in LA = not the same as a circuit court or the Supreme Court.

Hollow victory, MPAA.

[Honolulu]

The only thing they're accomplishing is trying to make an example out of them, but these kind of actions never really work. If someone falls two new heads grow out.

One thing to take notice of is that a torrent isn't illegal in itself.
Also, Torrentspy did'nt even host any torrents. It was more of a search engine for torrents on other sites.
It's crazy up how some people can bend the law.

[Tempist]

Lets counter sue them for infringing on our rights to seek out media. What are they going to do when Digital downloads happen and people end up sharing those some how? Sue everyone who's ligit and not ligit?

Stand up to them people!

[Crazyglues]

they can afford to pay $110 Million dollars in damages..?

Thats a huge amount of money.

[ropelli90]

Why did they have to pay MPAA the $110 million? I think the artists and film markets are the ones who lost money... Well the MPAA lost money too... BUT they shouldn't even get money from other people's work anyway.

Anyway this is a bad way to end piracy and it's almost an impossible way... The way they could do it, is to make buying music and films easier and cheaper. Torrent sites are way more easier to get music and films from than any legal way. In legal sites you have to give your credit card number, you have to know what DRMs the files have in order to make sure you can play them with your favorite/portable media player and of course you also have to pay for the songs.

How to make the songs films cheaper/free? One word... Advertising. Online stores could have more ads and the money would go straight to artists and film makers depending on how much of their work have been downloaded. The site could accept donations or something in order to be kept alive.

Sorry for the grammar, I'm Finnish

[brothersimon]

owned.

only retards use this site

[DomUltra]

I'm pretty sure you've been a retard since birth.

[brothersimon]

u mad? :-D

[Pornlord]

There is no way it will end piracy... it's not possible, they don't even (and slyly can't) attack the main distribution channel for a lot of piracy, and that's MIRC... anybody do that??? It was around when Napster got started, I was using it in 1998 to get movies... back when MPG and ASF were commonly used, before AVI even, and you know why they can't shut that one down, because it's a chat channel, they can't help it if people have found a way to abuse it, they are not liable for it. There is no way it will end piracy, I stopped using mirc because isohunt was a little bit easier for me to find what I wanted, unless it is rare or something. But I've been back to using mirc for two weeks and I had forgotten how fast and easy it truly is once you get used to the system, and the best thing about it is, you dont' have to upload, so even if someone is tracking your IP, there is no ratio, so it's basically a safe way to do it if you think of the legality of it.

[sleepbox]

That is a bigger fine than I was expecting. I thought Torrentspy had been closed to the US for a long time.

[Dnarbeis]

Lol, there dead.

[KeenanTheSavage]

Well, sucks for them. I'm surprised it wasn't more....

[Spydiggity]

maybe if they made movies that didn't completely suck, didn't keep casting the same talentless actors, and didn't keep remaking old movies worse than the originals; then the people might actually feel compelled to spend money on a movie. same can be said for the music industry. when bands like Simple Plan, Linkin Park, and Good Charolette die off, and directors like Michael Bay and Peter Jackson stop getting work (or when the general population stops supporting these hacks) then we'll have a better industry. This should NOT be a legal issue. It's a social issue.