TorrentSpy ordered to track visitors for MPAA
A bit of scary news appeared at ZDnet yesterday. We all know MPAA are little stupid sometimes but they take their job seriously and they still have a lot of power and manners how to achieve their goals. TorrentSpy, a popular BitTorrent search engine, was ordered on May 29 by a federal judge in the Central District of California in Los Angeles to create logs detailing users’ activities on the site. TorrentSpy has promised in its privacy policy never to track visitors without their consent. “It is likely that TorrentSpy would turn off access to the U.S. before tracking its users,” Rothken said. “If this order were allowed to stand, it would mean that Web sites can be required by discovery judges to track what their users do even if their privacy policy says otherwise.”
This is believed to be the first time a judge has ordered a defendant to log visitor activity and then hand over the information to the plaintiff. Many Web companies keep visitor logs, which can include Internet Protocol addresses, as well as other information. Some choose not to record this data, including EFF, von Lohmann said. The TorrentSpy homepage ic currently displaying a brief message about current events and informs about the state of actual monitoring:
While we use Google Analytics for website statistics, TorrentSpy servers have never tracked your IP Address, the searches you make, or how you use the site. We are dedicated to your privacy and we are fighting for your rights.
It will be interesting to see how will this case end – I know many admins of torrent sites around the world and failure (for TorrentSpy) could mean a lot of troubles, as MPAA could easily continue in similar activities with other torrent websites. The main problem of TorrentSpy is it was hosted in the States for a long time (currently in Holland), and so it became way more vulnerable to American law and institutions. The site is topping almost 1 million visitors a day with more than 16% from United States, so this decision would probably have serious consequences.
Comments(47)
If MPAA gets their way, then at least Torrentspy already have an appropriate name!
Just one more reason why it must suck to be American.
i remember reading about piratebay and how their servers are all over europe. thats why piratebay cant be taken down or forced to give out info to the american government. if torrentspy’s server is currently in holland, then how come a US court can give that kind of order?
anyways – i hope that the torrent-site hosts dont get in trouble and find a legal way to keep up the sites.
If the site is hosted in Holland shouldn’t Torrentspy fall under the Dutch law? In Holland downloading anything but software is completely legal. Uploading however is punishable by extremely high fines. So I think this won’t be a problem. In any case not for the Dutch.
You say it was located in the US for a while .. so the only logs that must be turned are before they moved to Holland, right ?
Since after that is not within their limits.
This may be the beginning of the end of torrentspy anyways because ppl may stay away from the site now. Its being hosted in holland but the guy running it/own it is in the US so I guess they’re after him to shut it down. Haven’t used torrentspy for a long time anyways. I much rather rlslog of course
junknova, eztv and tvtorrents.
does rlslog track IPs ?
Thanks god I’m not American & I’m using Mininova.org.
All torrents are insecure.. all websites that host torrents are insecure..
dont use them, end of.
nice read..
congrats you traded in a website that defends its users for a website that censors its users and randomly goes about deleting accounts at whim. MiniNova is G.A.R.B.A.G.E.
It doesn’t matter where the servers are, if the owner lives in the US the site falls under US law.
Gee.. gay move. We’re all keeping the hollywood stars in their mansions after all and they’re still not happy enuf
Yeay…Europe!!!!! America sucks!!
I dont use that crappy site anyways.
America Sucks?! No the MPAA and the faggot judges that let this shit through sucks!
Fuck Europe and fuck you Jesus!
Jesus, why does your IP address show up as 666.666.666.666? Go to hell, you biased bastard
Somebody should kill a couple of these MPAA assholes…
Luckily here in Europe we only have pussies who ‘protect’ copyright. They can’t do shit because in court they always lose. No wonder most succesfull torent sites set up in Europe. We’ve got the law on our side!!!
I have no actual idea what I’m talking about, but I would guess that the reason Europe is not that concerned with movie piracy issues is because its own movie industry is not that big in scale comparing to the one we have. Hollywood spendings are truly enormous nowadays, so it seems obvious that studios will try everything they can to protect their interests and incomes. That being said, I strongly believe that if they tried to cut down the hundreds of millions of dollars they routinely spend on celebrity names and invest a small portion of these money into talented screenwriters, the industry’s earnings would not take so much of a hit each year. Personally, I don’t even remember the last time I visited, or even wanted to visit a movie theater.
I stopped using that ad-filled piece of sh*t months ago, I hate TorrentSpy with a passion. It’s impossible to navigate there without being bombarded with pr0n ads and pop-ups, Mininiova ftw.
Private trackers ftw
If you ask me, it’s only fair we download and it should be legal. Just look at the whole damn media, government, not to mention all the fucked actors, don’t you think they’ve got plenty of money? Fuck MPAA, that’s all I can say to this!
who uses public trackers anyways?
lets hack MPPA, share and share… for everyone… but hack MPPA… AND
OOPS sorry MPAA… sunday here… lets not let some yanks kill our joy and fun…of sharing for all..
I believe that in the uk you have to get a warrant from a court to gain data about any users using a service. but in the uk we ie the admins are not allowed to go public on the fact that the data/persons are being investigated.
Please dont think that using a service to downlad is any way going to stop the assholes who look after the “Movie/Entertainment/Advertising” companies from stopping you downloading if you are a little more carefull than we all are now.
Pretty soon torrents will be moved underground (like a few private torrents i know about) but then again you all still have to start using proxies to hide what you do.
Downloading should not be a crime. you are not the one ripping and making available the data, sorry torrents sites whichever way you look at it your in the wrong, Not us casual users. as you supply a link to illegal data.
one day searching for shit on google could get you 20 yrs.
this is my own view after spending the last 30 yrs providing myself with data i can use.
it could be worse you could use a site that spreads kiddy pron torrents like TPB and then you are in shit street if your IP address is associated with that.
Can I ask…can the MPAA not touch me then b/c i live in Greece?
Dean – that depends. What are the copy protection laws in Greece? Assuming there are applicable laws, then the MPAA would just need to file thier case in Greece, following your own laws.
@colly
You want to point the finger at torrent sites & blame them for making downloading these files available to us? Regardless of whether we agree with the laws prohibiting us from this activity, we all have a choice whether we choose to visit these site to engage in this act. I download plenty of material the law says I shouldn’t, but it’s my choice to do it, & I’ll accept whatever happens to me regarding this. I have no intention of blaming others for the choices I make in life.
It’s easy to pass the buck!
Cheers!
Pretty soom Americans wont be able to scratch their genitals without the Government or some Jewish owned company knowing about it.
Freedom and Liberty MY ASS!
“Pretty soom Americans wont be able to scratch their genitals without the Government or some Jewish owned company knowing about it.
Freedom and Liberty MY ASS!”
Hmmm, last time I looked scratching your nuts was a lot different than downloading copyrighted material.
You must have not ventured very far from your homeland in your little lifetime.
Rabi, meet Jeff, a mentally retarded janitor from Flowers for Algernon. Jeff, stop eating the carpet and say hi to Rabi.
who cares…the MPAA has been suckered by a bunch of geeks inot giving them nice gear and a fat pipe to play cyber-spook with. furthermore Box office sales continue on par and dvd sales continue to sky-rocket. Its a whole bunch of free PR for hollywood shrouded in political and ethical mumbo-jumbo. Now thats the american way. yall get a clue and give this the attention is deserves *farts*
hmm wow they are really cracking down but it is sometimes sad that they have those lil ads saying down pirate because people who are behind the scene dont get money
where lets say 90 percent of the people go to the theaters to see movies… Spiderman 3 proves that much
the only thing i could see them losing money in is DVD sales and even then that cant be much they are nost losing as much as the music industry is and they arent even in trouble because most of their money comes from promotion and royalties anyway
check out
http://www.stealthisfilm.com/
it’s about pirate bay’s problems from back in the day.
Ok for us…..i live in thailand and here torentspy are censored…so we cant access it ! LooL
so finally thai gvt is trying to protect piracy
At least you don’t live in North Korea. Then your life would truly suck even more.
Damn… i’m so happy i live in Canada. The MPAA is the worst shit ever, saw a documentary about it.. it’s them that but ratings on movies, and these people are like.. CEO of Sony and all that crap. And if you combine all these people from the 6th most powerfull american compagny, you realize that they control over 90% of all media in the US. F*CK YOU General Electric!
look if I care… I just use NewTorrents
you know that the european union just passed a bill that forces every ISP to log your connection data (only the ip adresses, type of connection etc not the data you transfer) for at least 6 month ?
so even IF ts logs your ips 1.) you don´t live in america so what can they do ? put you on the top 10 wanted terrorists list ? put you into one of those secret prisons ?! … they can´t do shit
and 2.) even if TS does not log your ip, your isp still does …
still, i don´t like TS either, its a poor page, with way to much ads (which i don´t hae anyways), poor navigation, bad statistic system (seeds peers etc) ..
but i support anyone who fights MPAA
TorrentSpy is a dumpsite (just like mininova), it doesn’t host torrents.
The company behind TorrentSpy is American (Valence Media).
The site itself is registered in St.Helena.
The reason why they are being hunted is the fact they make a lot of money on ads and their affiliated links (using illegal content to attract visitors).
“Mr.X (staff):
does rlslog track IPs ?
God you guys are ignorant and stupid
@MARTIN Who is this TURDMAN apart from an obviously retarded wanker who for some reason thinks he is amusing.A turd is a shit where i come from so i presume he is calling himself Shithead .A Freudian slip,,, No doubt he is fat,spotty, drooling,,twat who is sitting in his room making his magazine pages all sticky cause he,s nothing better to do and nobody likes him..Anyway can,t you stop the little prick as he,s wasting time and space..He is also on SHREK review doing the same thing..When you have a Boil on your arse it,s better to lance it before it start,s to infect..
I’m happy to live in South America… our authorities are dumb and haven’t heard anything about torrent (yet).
Ppl here are scared that orkut.com exposes too much, so just step aside those stupidities and enjoy.
More importantly…. how can we protect ourselves… Does Peer Guardian protect us…
What torrent sites do you prefer?
open or priv?
Most priv have a nice speed, but really stupid rules (1:1 share ratio within a givin time or banned instead of just disable leeching for a while till ratio is filled).
Most open trackers suck speed, but can be accessed without any problem.
so…what to hit next?
Private tracker sites aren’t safe either!
**Piracy Investigators Infiltrate Private Torrent Sites**
http://torrentfreak.com/piracy-investigators-infiltrate-private-torrent-sites/
Land of the Free-
Since when is last year considered “back in the day”? That makes me feel reaalllly old. Unless you still count your age in months, I’d say that was just “a little while ago”.