TorrentSpy Slapped with $111 Million Fine

May 08, 2008 | by Nick Mokey

The MPAA's case against the infamous BitTorrent search engine has finally wrapped up, leaving the site with a $111 million fine and perhaps, empty pockets.

It turns out that movie piracy does pay – just not for the pirates, as you might expect. The MPAA’s drawn-out battle with BitTorrent search engine TorrentSpy finally came to a dramatic end this week, with a $111 million dollar judgment against the site.

According to CNET, Los Angeles U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper handed the fine down to TorrentSpy owners Valence Media along with a permanent injunction forcing the site to cease operations (though it voluntarily shuttered its site in March to avoid users further incriminating themselves). The court calculated the fine by adding $30,000 for every one of 3,699 movies and TV shows illegally distributed.

Not surprisingly, the MPAA executives were pleased with the ruling. “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,” MPAA CEO Dan Glickman said in a statement. Representatives from TorrentSpy have yet to publicly comment on the ruling.

But one major question remains – where the money will come from. TorrentSpy’s financial situation through the trial has come off fragile at best, and the Washington Post now reports that parent company Valence Media has recently filed for bankruptcy in a U.K. court.

Post Your Comment...Comments

Stan on May 8th, 2008 at 9:35 AM:

This is a huge ruling and will definately set a precedence. Obvously torrent spy will not be able to fight the ruling. I wonder which site is next?

James on May 8th, 2008 at 10:27 AM:

Yeah this is scary.

John Slanger on May 8th, 2008 at 12:08 PM:

Wow, that is HUGE!!!

Mark on May 9th, 2008 at 4:49 PM:

This was posted on their site:

Friends of TorrentSpy,

We have decided on our own, not due to any court order or agreement, to bring the Torrentspy.com search engine to an end and thus we permanently closed down worldwide on March 24, 2008.

The legal climate in the USA for copyright, privacy of search requests, and links to torrent files in search results is simply too hostile. We spent the last two years, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, defending the rights of our users and ourselves.

Ultimately the Court demanded actions that in our view were inconsistent with our privacy policy, traditional court rules, and International law; therefore, we now feel compelled to provide the ultimate method of privacy protection for our users - permanent shutdown.

It was a wild ride,

The TorrentSpy Team

"Big Brother in the form of an increasingly powerful government and in an increasingly powerful private sector will pile the records high with reasons why privacy should give way to national security, to law and order [...] and the like." - Justice William O. Douglas

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