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TorrentSpy Loses MPAA Copyright Suits

By: Bianca Fox

Posted: 12/19/2007

LOS ANGELES - A federal judge has ruled in favor of Motion Picture Association of America member studios in their copyright infringement suits against BitTorrent index TorrentSpy.com.

The case was terminated Tuesday due to the court's finding that TorrentSpy intentionally destroyed evidence - including user IP addresses, forum postings with references to copyright infringement and site directories referencing copyrighted works - and will proceed directly to the phase in which damages are considered.

"Although termination of a case is a harsh sanction appropriate only in extraordinary circumstance, the circumstances of this case are sufficiently extraordinary to merit such a sanction," U.S. District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper stated in her ruling.

TorrentSpy apparently plans to appeal the decision.

Six MPAA studios sued TorrentSpy in early 2006. TorrentSpy filed a countersuit against the MPAA, alleging that the trade group hired a hacker to steal corporate information.

TorrentSpy blocked access to U.S. users during the case, following the judge's order for the company to turn over user information stored on its servers.

The MPAA called Cooper's ruling a "significant victory."

"The court clearly recognized that defendants engaged in evidence destruction because they knew that such evidence would prove damaging to them," said John Malcolm, MPAA's executive vice president and director of worldwide anti-piracy operations. "The sole purpose of TorrentSpy and sites like it is to facilitate and promote the unlawful dissemination of copyrighted content."