The MPAA is becoming increasingly like the RIAA, in its
attempts at going after organisations, and individuals, who share (or
allow the sharing of) illegal files over the Internet.
TorrentSpy
was once a stalwart participant of the BitTorrent communications on the
web,
but found today that its future was soon to be short lived
It emerged earlier this week of the
website’s defeat amidst the powers of the MPAA in court.
The judge presiding over the case involving the link farm
“made a default ruling in favor of the
MPAA…(saying)
the site’s operators had tampered with evidence.”
TorrentSpy Targeted By MPAA
Long a popular post for links to peer-to-peer file transfers,
TorrentSpy first hit a rough patch when news of its being targeted by
the MPAA reached the public’s ear. Soon thereafter, activity
at the site slowed considerably.
Later, the website was rumored to be passing user information
to authorities, which its administrators made repeat attempts to
rebuff, mostly to no avail. Now it has a high-profile judicial loss to
assess.
The Future Not Looking Good
Clearly, the prognosis for further life for TorrentSpy is not
a good one. Unlikely to gain prominence in the realm of digital file
sharing, regardless of whether it opts to house a directory of links
pertaining to exclusively free and legal data, we see a short and grim
end for the controversial outfit.
When all deliberations are complete, even taking into account
the appeal it is expected to file, the end is surely nigh.
Why go so far as a to spell doom? Simple. Obstruction of
justice by way of evidence manipulation.
No matter what the nature of any changes made regarding the
data collected (either temporarily or permanently), the result of such
a charge against the defendant (TorrentSpy) is an almost immediate
ruling in favor of the plaintiff (MPAA).
Furthermore, very few exceptions have ever historically been
made to reverse such default decisions. In effect, the cards are
stacked very much against TorrentSpy at present.
Conclusions
When all the dust settles, the only eventual outcome we can
foresee as a possibility for TorrentSpy is a sort of reinvention, but
whether its proprietors see any incentive to do so is now too difficult
to infer.
Keep in mind, the abovementioned case has not yet concluded.
The aspect of damages must still be ruled upon.
Paul Glazowski is a contributing author discussing the social networking world, his work can be found on Profy.com
