Los Angeles (CA) – The MPAA just scored a major anti-piracy victory against TorrentSpy, which once was one of the major BitTorrent indexing Website. The umbrella organization for movie industry won record damages in the amount of $110 million.

The fine appears to be the final chapter in a lawsuit that was filed by the MPAA against TorrentSpy in February of 2006 and ultimately resulted in the shutdown of the service in March of this year. A federal judge awarded the maximum fine of $30,000 for each of almost 3700 files, landing the MPAA $110 million judgment. According to law, the maximum damages for a single infringement is $30,000.

The MPAA heralds this decision as a key judgment that will be the base for future lawsuits against other torrent sites. Valence Media, which operated TorrentSpy, filed for bankruptcy protection in the UK following the judgment.

Yea right ...

May 08, 2008 13:16     

This is all for show. TorrentSpy file for bankcruptcy before the judgment and they have no asset. So who will pay the money.
Captain555 report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +5

MPAA will never see a dime!

May 08, 2008 15:25     

Win all the judgements you like. They will all file for bankruptcy and have another site waiting in the wings to take their spot. It is laughable.
Bob report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +8

$30 000 per song/movie

May 08, 2008 15:48     

That's quite a hefty fine for a search engine that didn't store any files, just indexed them
chewbie report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +5

Who walks away laughing?

May 09, 2008 04:04     

The only ones who walk away with a clearcut win are the lawyers. Spending 2 years, MPAA wins little aside from pride. TorrentSpy wins by defaulting to bankruptcy, gaining media attention in the process. So many times (not all the time) lawyers and law students feed off this artificial routine and misleading portrayal of righteousness, at plaintiff, defendant and taxpayer expenses.
aguada99 report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +4