TorrentSpy hit with $111 million fine for copyright violation

by Brad Linder May 8th 2008

BitTorrent tracker TorrentSpy may have shut down last month, but that wasn't enough to prevent a federal judge from slapping the site with a $111 million fine yesterday. While BitTorrent didn't host any copyrighted materials on their own servers, the service did make it easy for users to illegally trade files. And the judge ruled that TorrentSpy's operators should pay $30,000 for each of the 3,699 instances of copyright infringement shown in the case.

Anyone familiar with sites like TorrentSpy knows that it's possible the site got off easy, as there were probably far more than 3699 copyrighted files made available through the site. On the other hand, TorrentSpy has already declared bankrupty and is incapable of paying the high fine. If the site hadn't already shut down, this ruling would most certainly have forced it to do so. A lawyer for TorrentSpy says the company plans to appeal.

This case was the first major test of the legality of BitTorrent sites in the US. Something tells us it won't be the last.

Tags: bittorrent, copyright, torrentspy

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Transcontinental said 1:14PM on 5-08-2008

I wonder if American kids are not becoming communist-oriented, in this revolutionary attitude of sharing, music included.
I shouldn't wonder, they're not communist, they just don't feel like paying!
So easy to share free stuff ;)

Jeebus said 2:27PM on 5-11-2008

How is that communist?

You sound more like the communist, wishing government protection for monopolies.

LA26 said 1:30PM on 5-08-2008

The US has a better chance at ending the war in Iraq than stopping file sharing in the US.

Transcontinental said 3:03PM on 5-08-2008

That's why sharing goes on : there's worst. There's always worst, and that's what makes grander, lesser, and file sharing increase as same. Like sheep, they think they should think what others think, or at least let themselves be driven that way.
What a lack of culture, what a lack of freedom ... Dude, whoever you may be (not U LA26), think for yourself, and stop conceiving your morality as the 5th equation of relativity!

Seth A said 5:59PM on 5-08-2008

Hasn't TorrentSpy been blocking searches from US based IP's for a long time not? I think its getting old, just leave the sites alone, honestly. Every time they stop one, another pops up, when they stop a medium, another one pops up. Its like the war on drugs, you can make it harder, but people will always find a way. I kinda miss TorrentSpy, they by far had the best looking theme of any of the sites. Thats the only thing I liked about it though. :-)

Insomnious said 10:45PM on 5-08-2008

I miss the comments on TorrentSpy; aahhh, those were the days, "wotz a flac file pls help me kthxbye", or the multiple instances kids with no idea about codecs for .avi files.

In the past year however, TorrentSpy was a mess of adverts and pointless scripts. Even with NoScript and Adblock, the site was a mess, and that turned me off going there.

Joe said 7:57AM on 5-12-2008

Good ... time for a little tough love.

tanner said 8:18AM on 5-22-2008

i think they slightly brought it upon themselves. all those adverts brought HUGE amounts of "unwanted" traffic, if your in ANY private tracker, your'll see NO or maybe 1 advert, thats because they don't want to be too well known.

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