"You have zero privacy anyway… Get over it." - Scott McNealy.
TorrentSpy.com, the BitTorrent tracking site facing a copyright lawsuit from the motion picture industry, is shutting down access to users in the United States, the company said in a statement late Sunday night. TorrentSpy’s ban on U.S. residents comes as a United States District court is expected to rule on whether TorrentSpy must turn over its login user information to the Motion Picture Association of America (the “MPAA”). The MPAA filed a civil complaint against the company last year accusing TorrentSpy of violating copyright law.
Officially, TorrentSpy explained that its decision to stop accepting U.S. visitors was not compelled by any court, but rather from the uncertain legal climate in the United States regarding user privacy and the apparent conflict between the privacy laws in the United States versus the stricter standards of the European Union. However, TorrentSpy also noted that because its servers are located in the Netherlands, its Web Site will remain operational and accessible to users outside of the United States. The MPAA declined to comment on TorrentSpy's decision.
According to the MPAA, TorrentSpy is a search engine that helps users find unauthorized copies of copyrighted videos. TorrentSpy unsuccessfully argued to Judge Chooljian that the company is legitimately protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The DMCA provides safe harbor for Internet service providers and does not hold them responsible for unlawful acts committed by their users. TorrentSpy’s attorney, Ira Rothken said that the Court’s pending decision will not affect TorrentSpy’s appeal of Magistrate Judge Chooljian’s recent decision to produce user information from the RAM on the company's computers. In an interview with CNET NEWS.com, Mr. Rothken warned, "This is a wake-up call to citizens and Internet users that their privacy isn't protected as well as they might have thought. Google, Yahoo and other search engines should be very concerned. One day these attacks on privacy will likely affect them."
The immediate concern for TorrentSpy is that if it is forced to disclose its login user data, some of TorrentSpy’s end users may be targeted by the MPAA as well. Other businesses may consider rewriting their data privacy policies to include a provision that the business cannot be held responsible for disclosing a customer’s private information in response to a court order.