The BitTorrent file-sharing Web site, TorrentSpy, has taken a big hit as a United States District Judge has ordered the site to pay the Motion Picture Association of America $110 million for copyright infringement (PDF).
TorrentSpy shut down its site on March 24, 2008 and according to a letter on its site the shutdown was voluntary and not due to court orders. This may have been true, but it was possibly done as pre-emptive damage control by this MPAA lawsuit that will be hitting the pocketbooks of TorrentSpy owners Justin Bunnell and Wes Park, whom have already filed for bankruptcy.
If anything, this case has proven that the Bitorrent file sharing sites can be pretty vulnerable, which include The Pirate Bay, one of the most publicized file-sharing sites and a site that seems to think of itself as invincible.
The War's Not Over
While TorrentSpy has lost a battle, the war against file-sharing site is far from over. As TorrentSpy goes down, it seems another new sharing site pops up everyday. Due to the risky nature of these sites, many are turning private, which means a membership is required to browse and download the torrent files that allow for the file-sharing to occur.
This is a big blow for file-sharing, but the war is far from over and those that want free copyrighted files will find a way to get free copyrighted files.
