Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Torrentspy ordered to track visitors

The popular torrent site TorrentSpy has been ordered by a California court to track its visitors as part of a suit initiated by the MPAA (WARNNG: TorrentSpy contains pictures of bouncy females in various stages of clothing). According to TorrentSpy's site:

"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."
It is interesting that the suit against TorrentSpy is about secondary infringement, it is clear that the industry cannot make the case that Torrent tracking sites are the direct infringers. It may also come about making items available to the public via links to trackers, but this will be open to debate. I have placed a copy of the magistrate's order here (courtesy of Fred von Lohmann). This will be definitely one to keep an eye on.

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