A prolonged legal fight with the movie industry has forced TorrentSpy, BitTorrent's popular search engine, to shut down.
"The legal climate in the USA for copyright, privacy of search requests, and links to torrent files in search results is simply too hostile," said a note on TorrentSpy's front door.
"We spent the last two years, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, defending the rights of our users and ourselves... we now feel compelled to provide the ultimate method of privacy protection for our users — permanent shutdown."
In 2006, the largest Hollywood film studios accused TorrentSpy in a lawsuit of encouraging movie piracy. A federal judge ordered the company last June to provide the studios with user information found in its computer RAM.
TorrentSpy, often used by file sharers to find bootleg films, tried a series of legal maneuvers in an attempt to protect the anonymity of visitors. In August, the company cut off access to residents of the United States, presumably to avoid complying with the court order.
In December, the judge in the case found that TorrentSpy operators intentionally destroyed evidence in the case, making it impossible for the Motion Picture Association of America to get a fair trial. They had earlier been fined US$30,000 for violations of discovery orders and were warned of severe sanctions if they continued to ignore the orders.
The judge ruled against TorrentSpy, which meant that all the company could do was argue over the amount of damages. From that point on, it appeared as if TorrentSpy's days were numbered.
okay, were in the information age right? so if someone decided to go to the library and watch those same movies for free whats the diffrence?
Whats next is the goverment going to regulate everything we share? screw that!
its not are fault that new technology as given us the ability to share and mass duplicate the items we share. thier copies of copies of copies.
And if they didnt want us to copyright infringe whatever you wanna call it , i call it peer sharing~ than why do they keep making it easier and easier to share what we got- hell my 6 year old can copy a song on the internet.
nobody gives a crap about file-sharing and 80% of the public file share and suport it. No one can control it, theres to many people doing it.
lastly adobe should be shot - who in thier right mind would pay 2499 for some stupid files~ this is why people fileshare - outrageous prices for a little bit of info that can be erased or disapear by a system crash... I payed for microsoft software doesnt work~ i had to file share the cd was scratched or corupted or something- funny thing is i only used it once my pc recently crashed and needed to re-install.
i have an original copy with serial
same thing with my damn dvds cant play them in my computer without some damn software interfering , or spying and asking me to register some crap, I got so angry the other day i was trying to play a dvd i payed for and som intervideo software on disney wouldnt function properly therefore i couldnt view the dvd, i was so pissed i almost through my P.C. mad cause i payed for something that has limited ability. thats B.S. alot of the new disney videos have it on there.
I payed forall my disney dvds however they wont run on my pc therefore i had to download an avi that stupid crap wouldnt play. So i ask myself why bother why pay? when they give you restrections as if you didnt????
if i pay 25 for a freakin dvd id better be able to watch it on my pc or anywhere freakin else.
so i support file sharing 100% i pay fair and square for my stuff but somehow it doesnt work or has built in restrictions so i cant view it the way i want.
there are alot of people who get screwed by file sharing restrictions, like me i ay for my software and dvds but comanys put so many loops ~for the thieves people who actually pay for thier stuff get screwed/
another thing you can always find a similiar or generic software on the GNU network~comparable to the brand you usually use and most convert files in the name brand format~ we dont need to steal anything theres other options out thier microsoft~adobe i hate all of you media producing companies i hope filoe sharing sucks the life out of you. I wish icould send back my restricted dvds and cds and software you can stick it where the sun dont shine.