ReasonedResponse.com

In what the Motion Picture Association of America is calling a "significant victory for the major Hollywood studios," a federal judge has ruled against the popular BitTorrent indexing site TorrentySpy. 

I can't see that it is a big win for Hollywood as much as an indictment of TorrentSpy for attempting to subvert the judicial system.  TorrentSpy operators are accused of intentionally modifying or deleting directory headings naming copyrighted titles and forum posts that explained how to find specific copyrighted works; concealing IP addresses of users; and withholding the names and addresses of forum moderators, the court found. They had earlier been fined $30,000 for violating discovery orders, and were warned of severe sanctions if they continued to ignore the orders.

Hollywood never proved that TorrentSpy actually infringed on copyrights, so it doesn't set much of a precendent in that regard.  However, the MPAA will be able to extract damages from the company and thus lay some moral claim to victory.

Both sides have withdrawn to lick their wounds, and will rejoin in court to quibble over how much TorrentSpy will pay in damages.  It is in a sense a good day for the MPAA, which has its victory; a good day for TorrentSpy, which is located in the Netherlands and thus is not much bound by US copyright laws; and a sad day for the Internet.

It's a sad day because the Internet isn't the free-style, wild-West, flaunt-the-law place it was back in 1997, and it is time that more people recognize that.  To the extent that operators do flaunt the law and get away with it, we are all a little bit lessened.  To the extent that any element of the industry abuses the law for its own gain, we are all harmed.

I'm not a big user of BitTorrent, mostly because I'm out here on the edge of broadband with a satellite connection and little patience for any large download I don't really need.  But to the extent I have used it, BitTorrent seems an important technology that should not be sullied by abuse in copyright infractions.  After all, we may need it once Hollywood gets its act together for movie downloads.