BitTorrent portal TorrentSpy has been ordered by a Federal Court Judge in Los Angeles to pay a $110 million fine to the movie industry in compensation for facilitating piracy.
The case of MPAA and Valence Media vs TorrentSpy started in 2006 and resulted in TorrentSpy’s owner Justin Bunnell blocking US visitors in 2007 when the court demanded he turn over IP address details of Americans using the site.
At its peak in 2006, TorrentSpy was credited with being the most popular bittorrent tracker, and the site popularized features such as torrent rankings and comment threads at a time when most bittorrent trackers provided a torrent index and nothing more (those features are far more common today).
The judge found that Justin Bunnell and associates must pay the maximum $30,000 for “each of the 3,699 infringements shown.” TorrentSpy attorney Ira Rothken has appealed the order to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
(via TorrentFreak / Wired)
