TorrentSpy shutdown (for US)

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update TorrentSpy.com, the BitTorrent tracking site facing a copyright lawsuit from the motion picture industry, is shutting down access to users in the United States, the company said in a statement late Sunday night.

The barring of U.S. residents by TorrentSpy comes as a U.S. district judge is expected to rule any day on whether TorrentSpy must turn over its user information to the Motion Picture Association of America. That group filed a civil complaint against the company last year accusing TorrentSpy of violating copyright law.

"TorrentSpy's decision to stop accepting U.S. visitors was not compelled by any court," according to a statement from the company. "Rather, it arises out of an uncertain legal climate in the United States regarding user privacy and the apparent tension between U.S. and European Union Internet privacy laws."

The company also said that because its servers are located in the Netherlands, the site will remain accessible to users outside of the United States.

Although TorrentSpy doesn't host any pirated movies on its site, the search engine helps users find unauthorized copies, the MPAA alleged in its suit. TorrentSpy has argued that the company has many legitimate uses and is protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The DMCA provides safe harbor for Internet service providers and does not hold them responsible for unlawful acts committed by their users.
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The MPAA declined to comment on TorrentSpy's decision.

Ira Rothken, attorney for TorrentSpy, said Monday that the decision to shut off U.S. residents will not affect the company's appeal of a recent magistrate judge's order that it hand over user information from the RAM on the company's computers.

"This is a wake-up call to citizens and Internet users that their privacy isn't protected as well as they might have thought," Rothken said in an interview with CNET News.com. "Google, Yahoo and other search engines should be very concerned. One day these attacks on privacy will likely affect them."

well, one thing is piracy and one thing is privacy. If they are really gonna get those informations about users .... well, that SUX

[redbear]

the funny thing is that they are only shutting down one site. within a matter of days, if not sooner ... more will pop up. they are not stopping anything nor anyone for longer than a few days - if that. most people know where to go to get what they are after.

[Jake]

Who are "users"?

Do they mean registered people, or the people who upload, or who?

Surely they don't mean everybody. That site must've gotten millions of hits a day.

[wirm]

As I understand it, the MPAA wants the IP addresses for every person who went onto Torrentspy.com and typed something into the search engine.

The site still works just fine, but only people outside of the US can use their tracker.

[corfy]

Originally Posted by wirm

As I understand it, the MPAA wants the IP addresses for every person who went onto Torrentspy.com and typed something into the search engine.

I wonder if they are differentiating between legal files and illegal files. There are a lot of files out there that are perfectly legal to transfer via bittorrent. Open-source software uses bittorrent a lot, and there is nothing illegal about it. In fact, bittorrent is about the only way to download Linux DVDs.

[j7wild]

Originally Posted by wirm

As I understand it, the MPAA wants the IP addresses for every person who went onto Torrentspy.com and typed something into the search engine.

The site still works just fine, but only people outside of the US can use their tracker.

they are not going to get that request filled!!

[Jake]

Yeah, ok, so they're going to file a case based on someone visiting a website?

What if I thought torrent spy was a SONAR system for river navigation?

Looks like it's just bullshit for show.