Hello, All.
(from bbc.co.uk)

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BitTorrent search site hits back

A search engine used to locate links to movie and music files has moved to
dismiss legal attempts by the US film industry to sue over copyright.

Lawyers for Torrentspy say the lawsuit is an attempt to make the BitTorrent
system itself illegal.

People use BitTorrent as a way of downloading content, often illegally
sharing copyrighted material.

Torrentspy says it does not host copyright files and obeys requests to
remove links to such material.

BitTorrent has become a widely used online system to get hold of very large
video files as the technology is very efficient at splitting up and sharing
data.

Use of the technology has proved to be a thorn in the side of the MPAA as
it can make it hard to work out who is behind illegal movie sharing.

Links issue

As part of its efforts to tackle the issue, the MPAA has targeted websites
which point to BitTorrent links such as Torrentspy.

Torrentspy stands accused of helping copyright infringement to occur by
directing people to sites, some of which host copyrighted content which can
be downloaded illegally.

The MPAA is in essence trying to outlaw the .torrent file format
Ira Rothken, Torrentspy lawyer

In response, Torrentspy has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in the
federal court in Los Angeles.

It challenges that the allegation made by the Motion Picture Association of
America that linking to torrent sites constituted secondary copyright
infringement.

Torrentspy's lawyer Ira Rothken said the motion argued that Torrentspy does
not link to Hollywood's copyrighted works.

He said Torrentspy had cooperated with Hollywood in removing objectionable
links to torrent files and did not actively promote copyright infringement.

"It cannot be held 'tertiary' liable for visitors' conduct that occurs
away from its web search engine," said Mr Rothken.

He said the MPAA was going beyond a recent ruling by the Supreme Court that
file-sharing services could be held liable for actions of their users in
certain circumstances.

"This appears to be the first case where major Hollywood studios are
suing a search engine that does not even link to any files copyrighted by
Hollywood.

"The MPAA is in essence trying to outlaw the torrent file format."

US lawsuits

This latest legal twist in the ongoing conflict between media industries
and the peer-to-peer sharing community.

In November last year, the global recording industry launched its largest
wave of legal action against people suspected of sharing music files on the
internet.

It targeted 2,100 alleged uploaders using file-sharing networks in 16
nations including the UK, France, Germany and Italy.

File-sharers in Switzerland, Sweden, Argentina, Singapore and Hong Kong
were also facing cases.

Thousands of people have agreed to pay compensation since the campaign began.

The number of cases brought by the International Federation of the
Phonographic Industry (IFPI) outside the US since March 2004 now stands at
more than 3,800.

In the US, civil lawsuits have been brought against more than 15,597 people
since September 2003 and there have been at least 3,590 settlements.
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Later,
Sean

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