Intellectual Property Law

Torrentspy Dinged $111 Million in MPAA Lawsuit

By Ryan Singel, Kevin Poulsen, Sarah Lai Stirland, Kim Zetter, and David Kravets

A federal judge is hitting the shuttered TorrentSpy service with a $111 million penalty for facilitating the infringement of thousands of copyrighted works.

U.S. District Judge Florence -Marie Cooper in Los Angeles, ruling in a case brought by the Motion Picture Association of America, said site operator Justin Bunnell and associates must pay the maximum $30,000 for "each of the 3,699 infringements shown."

The case, producing what is among the largest fines in copyright history, was bolstered after the MPAA allegedly paid a hacker $15,000 for internal TorrentSpy e-mails and correspondence.

"This substantial money judgment sends a strong message about the illegality of these sites," MPAA Chairman Dan Glickman said in a statement.

TorrentSpy, a U.S.-based torrent tacking service, shuttered in March after it lost its case against the MPAA. TorrentSpy did not lose on the merits, but defaulted after it failed to produce internal records.

No U.S. case has squarely addressed the legalities of BitTorrent tracking services, although one case is nearing a resolution.

Judge Cooper ordered TorrentSpy permanently shuttered.

TorrentSpy attorney Ira Rothken was not immediately available for comment. He has appealed the default order to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

UPDATE

Readers are asking how the judge arrived at $30,000 for each violation. Here is direct language lifted from the Copyright Act:

"...the copyright owner may elect, at any time before final judgment is rendered, to recover, instead of actual damages and profits, an award of statutory damages for all infringements involved in the action, with respect to any one work, for which any one infringer is liable individually, or for which any two or more infringers are liable jointly and severally, in a sum of not less than $750 or more than $30,000 as the court considers just."

See Also:

• Judge Terminates TorrentSpy Defense, Citing Alleged Evidence ...
• MPAA Talks Turkey; Pirating Costs Based on Futuristic Fantasy
• TorrentSpy Shutters in Wake of Court Order
• MPAA Paying Hacker for Purloined TorrentSpy Emails Not Illegal ...
• MPAA: Drink Duff Beer, Don't Steal Homer's New Flick
• Friday Followup: MPAA Won't Say Why It Fought Pre-Texting Ban
• Isohunt Founder at Center of US Torrent-Tracking Legal Battle

Full post as published by Threat Level on May 07, 2008 (boomark / email).