AfterDawn: News

MPAA accuses TorrentSpy of withholding evidence

Yesterday, the MPAA accused the large torrent tracker site TorrentSpy of withholding evidence that was stored on the site's servers.

TorrentSpy is involved in a court battle with a few media companies over copyright infringements. According to CNET, a federal judge has decided that, for the first time in history, the electronic trail in a computer server's RAM must be turned over as evidence during litigation.



The judge ordered the site to begin logging user activity and IP addresses and turn the data over to the MPAA. The judge gave TorrentSpy until Tuesday to file an appeal as well as allowing the site to mask the IP addresses of its users for the time being.

TorrentSpy responded to the judges' decision by saying, "We have spent the last year challenging their relentless campaign against the 1st Amendment and personal privacy laws Worldwide. We have succeeded in delaying the court order to turn on logs while we appeal it. TorrentSpy will not create logs of what you do on the site without your consent."

TorrentSpy has also said they will not release any user information and have never tracked IP addresses.

Source:
Dailytech

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 15 Jun 2007 11:24

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• 20 comments

• tefarko

  does anybody know the current market price of a judge?

  15.6.2007 11:32 #1

• PeaInAPod

  I don't know what the going price is, but the MPAA could tell you.

  15.6.2007 11:38 #2

• nonoitall

  Just to buy a judge is still fairly expensive, but when you have multiple court cases I heard you can get buy-one-get-one-free prices. Or for those who frequently need a biased judge you can pay a monthly subscription and get all the judges you want.

  15.6.2007 12:39 #3

• tucker001

  FUCK THE MOTHER FUCKING MPAA

  15.6.2007 13:22 #4

• sdsunjay

  lol. nothings gonna come of this cuz torrentspy does not have anything tracked. the site is just a host, it doesnt keep any info. but MPAA is being stupid and costing torrent spy millions in legal fees.

  15.6.2007 13:39 #5

• ryan1515

  MPAA BASTARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  15.6.2007 14:28 #6

• SSSJDanny

  Damnit TorrentSpy was the only torrent site I ever liked!!!

  15.6.2007 14:43 #7

• flyingv

  Withholding names! OMG! What do they think they are doing? This is the MPAA we're chatting about! They are the great gods of the internet! They withhold the future of our existance in their almighty hands! They are not to be messed with! Just ask 'em, they will tell you.

  15.6.2007 15:59 #8

• spydah

  Anybody got a quarter i think i wanna buy a judge.

  15.6.2007 17:15 #9

• PeaInAPod

  Originally posted by spydah:Anybody got a quarter i think i wanna buy a judge.I'd lend it to you but its not good, you can't get a judge. Trust me I already tried, they said they were all being used by the MPAA :P

  15.6.2007 18:00 #10

• Tashammer

  there is a pattern happening all over the place where the corporates and their "associations" drain unfunded groups of any resources by taking them through the courts.
  
  One would have to wonder if the process was not vexatious litigation as the goal is less to achieve a court outcome as it is to use the process to drain opponents of money.

  15.6.2007 19:28 #11

• fgamer

  It's so easy for the MPAA to pay off a Judge it's not even funny. Same thing with alot of lawmakers out there, their paid off to help further ones cause. MPAA can kiss my ass...I bet you they won't be able to touch thepiratebay.org for a long while.

  15.6.2007 19:35 #12

• trigga71

  Tashammer you have a great point.
  
  Maybe people might want to buy the movies that are made if they were good. Hell now if you've seen the trailer you have seen the movie and its "best parts" Disney Channel has better movies than major productions.

  16.6.2007 22:24 #13

• morguex

  MPAA, Please go off some some where and die quietly.
  
  Informed people are not scared of you and the longer you carry on with this crap, the more informed people there will be.
  
  Peace all

  21.6.2007 12:32 #14

• borhan9

  The are on a non stop rampage trying to find the next one to take down. Sooner or later torrents will become acceptable like online music and then u have to pay for the torrent :)

  21.6.2007 15:55 #15

• madman91

  pfft... public trackers.. good riddance

  23.6.2007 11:31 #16

• jameslf

  Originally posted by tucker001:FUCK THE MOTHER FUCKING MPAAright on

  24.6.2007 03:46 #17

• MVS

  If the cost is low enough, it wouldn't be all that bad to have to pay for torrents. TorrentSpy is worthy of being be paid too.

  26.6.2007 12:02 #18

• Bob666

  Quote:I bet you they won't be able to touch thepiratebay.org for a long while. Uh... dude I h8 2 break it 2 u but the piratebay server has already been seized for investigation there's more on: http://thepiratebay.org/blog

  26.6.2007 17:47 #19

• armorthis

  Quote:Bob666 (Newbie) 26. June 2007 @ 21:47
  Quote:
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  I bet you they won't be able to touch thepiratebay.org for a long while.
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  Uh... dude I h8 2 break it 2 u but the piratebay server has already been seized for investigation there's more on: http://thepiratebay.org/blog
  
  Thats BS, I just finished reading the article in their blog about how they are keeping their servers longer.
  
  Quote:Roswall gets an extension based on lies/stupidity
  As expected, the prosecutor Håkan Roswall got prolonged time to bring a legal action against The Pirate Bay until October 1st 2007. More unexpected is the reasons given and the grounds for the decision.
  - For a district court the reasons might seems sufficient, but for someone familiar with the case and the technique the arguments doesn't add up, says Magnus Eriksson of Piratbyrån.
  
  Lets analyze the reasons given one by one:
  
  
  "That the analyzis of confiscated equipment are still under way and that the equipment to a large extent consist of servers, which makes the work much more time-consuming."
  - A server is not a multi-purpose machine like a regular computer. Contrary to what Roswall claims, it's often adapted to only one purpose. Therefore, the investigation of a server should be less time-consuming than that of a personal computer. Still Roswall claims that he can't return the servers even after a year of investigation.
  "That he awaits the opinion of the state crime lab regarding analyzis of scripts and documentation of the torrent database."
  - TPB consists of around 6000 lines of specially written code, or 16 lines of code to analyze each day. Up to three police officers have been dedicated to this for a year. What The Pirate Bay tracker and torrent site does should be obvious for everyone today.
  "That the investigation regarding economic exchange in the activity of the Pirate Bay is still going on."
  - If you haven't found anything illegal in an investigation of economic activity after a year, there is nothing there. No matter how much you wished it was!
  "That encrypted information has been encountered in some of the confiscated computers that hasn't been cracked."
  - This encrypted data does not belong to The Pirate Bay, but to the customers of Internet service providers PRQ. But only confiscation and investigation of equipment belonging to The Pirate Bay was allowed. Besides, a standard level encryption today takes about 40 years to crack. That's a lot of appeals for prolonged preliminary investigation!
  "A large number of people have been actualized in the investigation. These must be questioned before the investigation can be completed."
  - What is a "large number"? Two, five, a dozen? Who are they and why haven't they been actualized until now? The few people working with The Pirate Bay have been public and there are no army of secret co-workers!
  
  These reasons given to the district court was found sufficient to grant the prolonging of the investigation. As we can see they do not stand up to a closer examination.
  

  27.6.2007 13:47 #20