TorrentSpy ordered to pay $110m

[sargey]

File-sharing site TorrentSpy has been ordered to pay $110m (£56m) in damages to the Motion Picture Association of America for copyright infringement.

The ruling from a court in the United States comes just weeks after the website shut down.

TorrentSpy facilitated the illegal sharing of copyright files by hosting a collection of links to films and music.

TorrentSpy parent company Valence Media and its owners Justin Bunnell and Wes Park have filed for bankruptcy.

The MPAA first began legal action against the website in February 2006.

"This substantial money judgement sends a strong message about the illegality of these sites," said Dan Glickman, chairman of the MPAA.

"The demise of TorrentSpy is a clear victory for the studios."

TorrentSpy utilised a legitimate file-sharing technology called BitTorrent. It makes it easier to exchange large files over the internet without having to rely on central servers, with individual users sending and sharing bits of files.

In a four-page ruling, US District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper said that TorrentSpy had to pay $30,000 for "each of the 3,699 infringements shown".

The judgement is one of the largest fines ever handed down for copyright theft.

TorrentSpy shut down on 24 March and the website now has a message saying it has closed as "the ultimate method of privacy protection".

It states: "The legal climate in the USA for copyright, privacy of search requests, and links to torrent files in search results is simply too hostile."

Ouch!

 

[nicknick]

Crazy money! I used to use that site too...

 

[mattjk]

Oh s**t! I wonder what will happen to the pirate bay and other public trackers

 

[Hazza]

I used to use that site too!!!

 

[Eryl182]

News Groups FTW!!

Encrypted, and billions of transfers.
would take forever to track them all.

 

[brisa4984]

this is getting abit scary now.

 

[daviebroon]

^news groups? for transferring mucis/vids/p**n etc?

 

[sargey]

If you are still using torrents, you are asking for trouble IMO.

 

[laserline2]

yh newsgroups are much better started using them bout 6 months ago and will never look back to the 30kb/s torrent downloads ( now getting 600kb/s downloads)

 

[daviebroon]

yh newsgroups are much better started using them bout 6 months ago and will never look back to the 30kb/s torrent downloads ( now getting 600kb/s downloads)

how do i start, what do i need?

 

[Longy]

yh newsgroups are much better started using them bout 6 months ago and will never look back to the 30kb/s torrent downloads ( now getting 600kb/s downloads)

how do i start, what do i need?

http://www.cliosport.net/forum/showthread.php?t=102541

 

[David]

well if it's encrypted how they hell are they going to be able to do anything? i guess aiming towards the report uploading side of newsgroups?

 

[couzens]

how does limewire get away with it :S

 

[Mwindow]

Never understood Newsgroups, and it still seems complicated from Girff's run through.

I use isohunt and have done for a while, guess that will be next to go?

 

[KDF]

File-sharing site TorrentSpy has been ordered to pay $110m (£56m) in damages to the Motion Picture Association of America for copyright infringement.

The ruling from a court in the United States comes just weeks after the website shut down.

TorrentSpy facilitated the illegal sharing of copyright files by hosting a collection of links to films and music.

TorrentSpy parent company Valence Media and its owners Justin Bunnell and Wes Park have filed for bankruptcy.

The MPAA first began legal action against the website in February 2006.

"This substantial money judgement sends a strong message about the illegality of these sites," said Dan Glickman, chairman of the MPAA.

"The demise of TorrentSpy is a clear victory for the studios."

TorrentSpy utilised a legitimate file-sharing technology called BitTorrent. It makes it easier to exchange large files over the internet without having to rely on central servers, with individual users sending and sharing bits of files.

In a four-page ruling, US District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper said that TorrentSpy had to pay $30,000 for "each of the 3,699 infringements shown".

The judgement is one of the largest fines ever handed down for copyright theft.

TorrentSpy shut down on 24 March and the website now has a message saying it has closed as "the ultimate method of privacy protection".

It states: "The legal climate in the USA for copyright, privacy of search requests, and links to torrent files in search results is simply too hostile."

Ouch!

To put this in perspective, the USA sent $3 million in aid to Burma.

 

[Scutch]

Ahh yes. Newsgroups are the way forward.

www.newzxxx.com FTW!

 

[David]

newsgroups are much easier than the guide makes out. the guide is just quite 'complete' if u see what i mean, just follow it through and be prepared to spend £15 a month or so and it's easy.

 

[Scutch]

Indeed. I think I'm on the Platinum Giganews account, and a subscription to newzbin which is about 7p a week or something, but it comes with newzxxx too. I dont pay for newzbin though, its a work account. Not that I wouldnt pay that much, coz its pretty cheap.

If you go to www.newzbin.com and search for, say, a movie, you'll get a list of them. But when you actually subscribe the list is far greater.

 

[David]

wtf work account, joker.

 

[Scutch]

wtf work account, joker.

Not a work account as such, its my mates boss's account. So we get a newzbin login and password with it.

 

[McBunny]

can someone invite me to newzbin please

 

[David]

wtf work account, joker.

Not a work account as such, its my mates boss's account. So we get a newzbin login and password with it.

pimp!

pm me your email address mate and i'll send over an invite

 

[thecremeegg]

Newzbin ftw! I get a subscription free off my mate and I always max out my connection - gotta love 2mb/s transfers!

 

[Ads_172]

Is there anyway to not pay the subscription costs for newsgroups? Not being a tight b*****d, but I doubt I'd download £20-odd of film and music a month, and my ISP would rape my connection speed...

 

[sn00p]

Is there anyway to not pay the subscription costs for newsgroups? Not being a tight b*****d, but I doubt I'd download £20-odd of film and music a month, and my ISP would rape my connection speed...

easynews.

£5 month, web interface (no pissing about downloading headers and crap), 30gb download limit/mo, although unused credit rolls over forever.

 

[Lagerlout]

£20?

I pay £6 for 200 day retention, limited to 25 GB/Month. Does me nicely tbh. (Giganews)

less than £1.50 a week. Not hard to get your monies worth tbh

I have 5 invites left for newzbin if anyone wants one. PM me your email addy.

 

[J203425]

If you are still using torrents, you are asking for trouble IMO.

+1

bittorrent is about to be dead in the water if you ask me....


edit: and this seems as good as newsbin and you dont need an account:

http://www.binsearch.info/

 

[Ads_172]

Cheers guys, I had a quick look at the sites but only saw their 'unlimited' subscriptions adverts, which is more. Had a proper look and it seems more reasonable!

 

[172.com]

newsgroups are much easier than the guide makes out. the guide is just quite 'complete' if u see what i mean, just follow it through and be prepared to spend £15 a month or so and it's easy.

£15? I pay a fiver for 20Gb.

Is there anyway to not pay the subscription costs for newsgroups? Not being a tight b*****d, but I doubt I'd download £20-odd of film and music a month, and my ISP would rape my connection speed...

easynews.

£5 month, web interface (no pissing about downloading headers and crap), 30gb download limit/mo, although unused credit rolls over forever.

I concur. 30Gb? Are you on Plus? I get 20Gb, but even that's too much. I've got 274Gb saved up lol.

 

[dick]

i pay £11/12 for 100GB, no timelimit.

 

[Ads_172]

Just joined Giganews and starting to sort it all out... although started downloading and it's saying my max d/l speed is 12kb/s! Surely that's awful...?

 

[dick]

i used to be with giganews.

usedto get 1000+ kb/sec

think its your firewall

 

[Ads_172]

Must be dude, just did a quick online test and it's saying download speeds of 2.5mb/s and upload of 0.5.

Is there an easy, universal way to stop my firewall getting in the way of newsleecher!?!

 

[Noodle999]

If you are still using torrents, you are asking for trouble IMO.

I wouldn't say you're asking for trouble personally, you've just got to be prepared for the sites you use not surviving forever...

Is there an easy, universal way to stop my firewall getting in the way of newsleecher!?!

Yep, Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs

 

[Ads_172]

Lol, thanks... I meant my router firewall but managed to turn that off but still no luck. Today it started off quicker, around 10kB/s but is going up and down like a yo-yo. I'm wth Plusnet and apparently they aren't particularly favourable towards p2p and newsgroups so make it the least priority, so it gets really slow when traffic's busy.

May have to change ISP's...

 

[172.com]

Lol, thanks... I meant my router firewall but managed to turn that off but still no luck. Today it started off quicker, around 10kB/s but is going up and down like a yo-yo. I'm wth Plusnet and apparently they aren't particularly favourable towards p2p and newsgroups so make it the least priority, so it gets really slow when traffic's busy.

May have to change ISP's...

www.bethere.co.uk

 

[Tiger]

i used newsgroups for a few months as i was gettin throttled by my isp, back onto torrents now. i personally think torrents are better, there is far more choice than newsgroups and its free..

 

[sn00p]

£15? I pay a fiver for 20Gb.

Is there anyway to not pay the subscription costs for newsgroups? Not being a tight b*****d, but I doubt I'd download £20-odd of film and music a month, and my ISP would rape my connection speed...

easynews.

£5 month, web interface (no pissing about downloading headers and crap), 30gb download limit/mo, although unused credit rolls over forever.

I concur. 30Gb? Are you on Plus? I get 20Gb, but even that's too much. I've got 274Gb saved up lol.

You have 282.52 gigabytes (303,352,953,699 bytes) remaining

You have been signed-up continuously since Thu Jun 21 09:53:17 MST 2001 (6.89271506 years).

Just on normal, my gig bank is brimming too!

 

[sn00p]

I concur. 30Gb? Are you on Plus? I get 20Gb, but even that's too much. I've got 274Gb saved up lol.

Whoopsie. Typo! I meant to say 20GB.

 

[J203425]

LOL at all the 20 Gb per month.


I download 200 Gb+ every single month - giganews platinum with SSL FTW!