Hollywood Studios Win $110M Judgment Against TorrentSpy

May 7, 2008

In a significant victory for the major Hollywood studios, a federal judge in Los Angeles has issued a $110 million judgment for the infringement of thousands of popular copyrighted motion pictures and television shows. The court also issued a permanent injunction prohibiting defendant from further infringing any of the studios’ copyrighted works. This is the second decisive defeat for TorrentSpy in the case. Late last year the same federal court entered a default order and found the TorrentSpy operators liable for copyright infringement. The TorrentSpy website was permanently shut down on March 24, 2008.

“This substantial money judgment sends a strong message about the illegality of these sites,” said Dan Glickman, Chairman and CEO of the MPAA. “The demise of TorrentSpy is a clear victory for the studios and demonstrates that such pirate sites will not be allowed to continue to operate without facing relentless litigation by copyright holders.”

The court rendered its judgment against Valence Media, the company operating TorrentSpy, for willful inducement of copyright infringement, contributory infringement and vicarious copyright infringement. The permanent injunction further prohibits Valence Media from engaging in any activity that encourages, promotes or solicits, or knowingly facilitates, enables or assists, copyright infringement.

The worldwide motion picture industry, including foreign and domestic producers, distributors, theaters, video stores and pay-per-view operators lose more than $18 billion annually as a result of movie theft. More than $7 billion in losses are attributed to illegal Internet distributions, while $11 billion is the result of illegal copying and bootlegging.