Torrent Spy lawyer cries 'Hollywood publicity stunt' – $111m court order will never be paid

Digital Music, Intellectual Property
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torrentspy.jpg I suppose being declared bankrupt is a lot better than having to pay someone $111m but I can’t imagine it feeling too pleasant when your debtors get to dance around with your head on a pike.

That’s the way it is for Justin Bunnell and Wes Park of TorrentSpy since last week when the Motion Picture Bullies of America decided to kick a good site when it was down.

It turns out that TorrentSpy successfully filed for bankruptcy here in the UK the week before the whopping great court order was issued making whatever sum the judge picked out of the air entirely irrelevant anyway.

“This was a Hollywood publicity stunt,” said TorrentSpy lawyer Ira Rothken, saying that the company has “no appreciable assets”.

Naturally, the MPAA will be pursuing the $111m all the same because they need to drum up the cash for Gwenyth Paltrow’s next sushi run from somewhere as well as clutch at their straw of success and parade it like a digital rights scarecrow.

TorrentSpy are appealing the decision nonetheless with Rothken stating: “It certainly is not a lesson for other search engines to look at what the rules are as they relate to dot-torrent files. There was no analysis of the copyright.”

Isohunt operator Gary Fung will be hoping he’s right. His torrent tracking service goes up against the MPAA next.

(via Wired)

Related posts: 8.2m users still on BitTorrent | TorrentSpy tortured after death

Daniel Sung
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