Court Rules Against TorrentSpy In MPAA Email Suit

mikesd81 writes "C|Net reports that a lawsuit filed by TorrentSpy against the MPAA, accusing it of intercepting the company's private e-mails, was tossed out of court this week. Even though a U.S District judge ruled that the MPAA broke no rules, the MPAA does admit it paid $15,000 to obtain private e-mails belonging to TorrentSpy executives. The MPAA's acknowledgment is significant because it comes at a time when the group is trying to limit illegal file sharing by imploring movie fans to act ethically and resist the temptation to download pirated movies. From the article: 'Ethically, it's pretty clear that reading other people's e-mail is wrong,' said Lorrie Cranor, an associate research professor and Internet privacy expert at Carnegie Mellon University. 'Being offered someone else's e-mails by a third party should have been a red flag.' TorrentSpy is appealing the decision." This is just not a good week for those guys.

Comments

Sadly this is the correct decision

[Anonymous Coward]

TorrentSpy is unfortunately in the wrong on this one. You can decry activist judges and hate on the MPAA and its brethren, but if you study the issues at play in this case and others like it, one thing is clear: illegal bittorrent aggregators need to be shut down. They are simply facilitating illegal trading of copyrighted works. Don't like the law? Change it. But the fact is, as the law exists today, TorrentSpy and others like it have no place, no legal place, in the United States.