Torrentspy Down

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Friends of TorrentSpy,

We have decided on our own, not due to any court order or agreement, to bring the Torrentspy.com search engine to an end and thus we permanently closed down worldwide on March 24, 2008.

The legal climate in the USA for copyright, privacy of search requests, and links to torrent files in search results is simply too hostile. We spent the last two years, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, defending the rights of our users and ourselves.

Ultimately the Court demanded actions that in our view were inconsistent with our privacy policy, traditional court rules, and International law; therefore, we now feel compelled to provide the ultimate method of privacy protection for our users - permanent shutdown.

It was a wild ride,

The TorrentSpy Team

"Big Brother in the form of an increasingly powerful government and in an increasingly powerful private sector will pile the records high with reasons why privacy should give way to national security, to law and order [...] and the like." - Justice William O. Douglas

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Torrentspy will be missed :(

If the laws restrict people's right for privacy in the internet then literally F**K the law. :mad:

Some 1337 RIAA idiots just closed down a good site. :(

Let's all switch to /* removed */ :p
They laugh the RIAA in the face.

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Originally Posted by Elysia

Let's all switch to /* removed */ :p
They laugh the RIAA in the face.

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They are awesome!

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Originally Posted by Neo1

They are awesome!

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Indeed. I like the articles and published letters at /* removed */.

No matter what that announcement has hypocrisy written all over it. That and the fact I sincerely doubt "thousands of hundreds of dollars were spent defending the rights of their users and themselves".

We have to face the simple fact torrent search engines are wreaking havoc on copyrighted material. They do this openly and without any qualms. Speaking of /* removed */, just take a look at the homepage, starting with the window title and finishing on their blog.

If they allowed themselves to get caught in court, tough luck. They can whine all they want.

I really have trouble understanding the whole culture for this sort of thing. I mean, I will admit that I've taken things, but to this day, if I liked it I purchased it. You can find so much media cheap on the internet these days. If you have to look at it like paying a fine to keep lawyers away, then so be it, but only if you have to.

I am completely aware that the RIAA and the MPAA are loony, exceedinly wealthy bureaucracies that care for nothing more than the make-a-buck bull........ and paying their armies of legal teams. Personally, I find that through acquiring anything I want "used" on Amazon is worth it because it redistributes goods: for a modest price, somebody gets rid of what they don't want in lieu of creating additional e-waste.

Always a pleasure seeing someone raising awareness. Other than that, I also tend to use this. You'd be surprised what we miss.

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Originally Posted by Mario F.

the simple fact torrent search engines are wreaking havoc on copyrighted material.

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Do you have a source to go with that? Not this one perhaps? fyi.

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Originally Posted by heras

Do you have a source to go with that? Not this one perhaps? fyi.

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Puzzled. What do I care if the studios had, are, or will have, record earnings? You speak of movies, I speak of copyrighted material in general which also includes content from the music, books and software industries.

You speak of money, I speak of copyrighted material. See the difference? Or do I also need to link to a dictionary for you?

Torrents are a way of sharing files. The use of torrents is almost as general as the for the whole internet. Linux and some other open-source is shared through torrents. Many self-made pictures are shared through torrents. Many self-made videos are shared through torrents. Many freeware, free e-books and other stuff is shared there. Nowadays some artists even officially release their albums through torrents.

Saying that torrents are only for pirated software is almost the same as saying internet was invented to share stuff illegally.

Broaden your minds.

Also, PRIVACY is the most important thing about internet. I condemn all governments or organizations trying to violate this.

I agree 100%. I have found torrents to be useful myself. But this is not what RIAA thinks. They believe it's all 100% illegal and tries to force all networks down, which is just sad.

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Originally Posted by Elysia

I agree 100%. I have found torrents to be useful myself. But this is not what RIAA thinks. They believe it's all 100% illegal and tries to force all networks down, which is just sad.

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Why don't they just close the internet? All problems would be solved... :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by maxorator

Saying that torrents are only for pirated software is almost the same as saying internet was invented to share stuff illegally.

Broaden your minds.

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Let's not bring a discussion where there never was one. I never said that.

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Originally Posted by Mario F.

Let's not bring a discussion where there never was one. I never said that.

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I just wanted to clear that out that torrents have nothing directly to do with piracy. :D

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Originally Posted by Mario F.

Puzzled. What do I care if the studios had, are, or will have, record earnings? You speak of movies, I speak of copyrighted material in general which also includes content from the music, books and software industries.

You speak of money, I speak of copyrighted material. See the difference? Or do I also need to link to a dictionary for you?

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You made a blanket statement (all too prevalent in such discussions) that I asked you to back up. I merely provided an example of why it's not that black and white.

What's not black or white? Do I really need to back up the fact every time someone downloads a book from a torrent, the author copyright was infringed? Or that every time someone downloads a song, the authors rights were infringed?

Give me a break. Torrent search engines are all to eager to provide you all you need in order to exchange this type of material. From their search engine facilities that allow you to search for books, software, music, video, to their user comments features, to their submission mechanisms.

I own a bookstore. You have any idea what it means to hear "I can get that from the web"? I need no convincing you. I know copyrights are being shredded to pieces all over the internet. The very nature of the medium makes it very hard to protect your rights. But that doesn't doesn't mean they don't exist here.

It only means, under the cover of our privacy rights, we can steal.

I would like to add that I can see an exception to a copyright infringe rule.
If I would purchase something, but the delivery time is 2 weeks, then I see no harm in downloading said item and using in the meantime until the physical item is delivered (seeing as how I did pay for the item).

Similarly, though it may be copyright infringement, I see no harm in downloading copyrighted stuff you already own. Own a music CD? Feel free to download the songs it contains (this is illegal under most laws). Own a game (whether it be a PC game or console game), feel free to download it, as well. You have purchased the said item, after all.

But the RIAA would destroy this, as many other things, as well.

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Do I really need to back up the fact every time someone downloads a book from a torrent, the author copyright was infringed? Or that every time someone downloads a song, the authors rights were infringed?

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It depends on the license of the book and the song.

Now, although as a technology torrents have nothing to do with piracy, the situation surrounding some of the common illegal uses of this technology makes this a sensitive legal issue. Consequently, I am closing this thread and removing references to websites that have strong associations with these illegal activities.