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TorrentSpy Ordered By Judge to Become MPAA Spy

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the watching-the-watchmen dept.

PC Guy writes "TorrentSpy, one of the world's largest BitTorrent sites, has been ordered by a federal judge to monitor its users. They are asked to keep detailed logs of their activities which must then be handed over to the MPAA. Ira Rothken, TorrentSpy's attorney responded to the news by stating: 'It is likely that TorrentSpy would turn off access to the U.S. before tracking its users. 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.'"

10 of 372 comments (clear)

  1. The Pirate Bay by Brother+Dysk · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yet another reason to use the Pirate Bay - being based in Sweden, it's incredibly unlikely that much action will be taken against it, especially in the current political climate there (as a direct result of the raid). Now they just need a way to clearly mark torrents that are tracked only by them...

    --
    - Frans.
    1. Re:The Pirate Bay by tomstdenis · · Score: 3, Interesting

      How is that post interesting? You're basically saying "we should be violating the copyright using a more attractive source so we won't get caught."

      As much as I hate the douchebags in the maffia [and well actors/singers in general] I respect their right to make a living by selling their productions. If whatever you're pirating is actually worth it to you, find a way to acquire it such that the people who made it still get paid. Otherwise, your "wonderful" solution involves artists [who are at the bottom of the money foodchain] not getting paid.

      Why not get a job and just by whatever media you like.

      Tom

      --
      Someday, I'll have a real sig.
    2. Re:The Pirate Bay by the_womble · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I respect their right to make a living by selling their productions.

      You could reword that "...make a living by being paid the licensing fees required by their government mandated monopolies."

      Why not get a job and just by whatever media you like.

      Because the only thing I have ever pirated does not appear to be available in the country in which I live. Is that a good reason? If they do not have a mechanism for me to pay them, they can hardly complain about not being paid.
    3. Re:The Pirate Bay by paganizer · · Score: 5, Interesting

      If I don't like it, i'm not too likely to download it.
      most of the music I like, except for a couple of flukes, isn't on Torrent or P2P.
      What I do use shareaza (P2P) for is to make up for living half the year someplace where I only have dialup; shareaza works better than getright. Since I retired from the network biz, i'm also kinda a busy amateur photographer, CGI "artist", and 3d object designer, I throw my stuff out in the world using P2P, to keep my bandwidth bills down on my website. I sell some stuff at renderosity.com and a few other places...and I've seen my for-sale stuff on P2P. I'm not bothered by it. it's free advertising, and I've had people purchase my stuff then tell me that they tried it from P2P, liked it, so they bought it. I suppose the possibility exists that i'm losing sales in this way, but I really doubt it.
      I'm not a Evil money grubbing pig, so maybe that explains my attitude... but P2P is the perfect way for a lot of markets to advertise. Bands should see music downloading as a way to advertise their gigs, or other value-added product that they actually get a fair chunk of the proceeds from.
      How about this; if a band, lets say somebody who isn't famous for trying to jail their fans, put up on their band website a simple little paypal button next to a list of their songs; they could ask for .50+ for each one, as soon as the paypal is paid, you are sent a link to the ftp, edtk or .tor for the track. and no DRM, no death threats, no nothing. they would make more money in that way than they currently make from the M(af)IAA system.

      --
      Why, yes, I AM a Pagan Libertarian.
  2. Privacy policy by UbuntuDupe · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.'"

    You know, I heard in some countries, they can tap the phones if they get a court order, even though the privacy policy of the people talking says otherwise.

    --
    Apology to Ubuntu forum.
  3. Why isn't the MPAA being prosecuted for hacking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Unbelievable.

    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.


  4. What Pirate Bay got right by ducomputergeek · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Was basing in a country with rather liberal copyright policies. I said back in the days of Napster that was their major flaw. Had they been based in a country with little or no regaurd for IP rights, what could have been done about it? That is the paradox of an open internet that governments have been trying to solve.

    It was only a matter of time before governments began trying to figure out a way to regulate the Internet. All governments like control and the internet is by its very nature hard to control, and designed to be a nigh bit diffcult because of redundancy, etc. Sure China and Saudi Arabia and other countries try by limiting the number of ISPs and including filters, but people still find a way.

    If you want to do something illegal on the net and can find a way to make money at it (the real tragic flaw of Napster), then there are a host of countries that would be happy to host for a percentage. And I'm not sure if anything can really be done to stop that. Trying to stop drugs hasn't worked.

    --
    "The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
  5. Re:Neat move by WaZiX · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Dispite all this, the U.S. economy does appear to be growing at a faster rate than Europe's

    Nominal Growth or realt growth? (inlation corrected or not).

    Does this "analysis" take into consideration the fact that the US accumulated huge exterior debt (and hence will have to pay interests on those)...

    Did you take into account that the Euro/dollar exchange rate has steadily decreased (the Euro has appreciated)...

    Did you take into account that most of the European population is more risk avers then the Americans, did you take that risk aversion into account in your analysis?

    Are people happier in the US then in the EU?

    You know, as an economist, I sometimes wonder why people have such Friedmanian views on the economy...

    In the end, it doesn't matter if the US has a bigger economic growth then the EU, what matters is that _both_ economies do well. We're talking about how well people live here, not the level of two players in some game...

    If economy (and hence the well being of the population) was just about having big numbers, do you really think there would be so much debate in the economic theory?

  6. US Court has Jurisdiction in the Netherlands? by kaos07 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Doing a quick IP trace http://visualroute.visualware.com/ tells us that Torrentspy is located in the Netherlands. How exactly does that fit into all this?

  7. This may surprise you, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You DO realize that NONE of those people get royalties, right? So they don't get a dime from CD sales.
    So the only harm they might suffer is if recordings aren't made at all.

    Guess you took that stupid brain washing ad they stick before movies too seriously?