MPAA Fights Piracy by Spying

 
By Stacy May 31, 2006




The fight over movie piracy has been gaining even as the technology increases the ease to share and copy files. Now, the MPAA has been accused of spying in order to strengthen their fight. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is being sued by TorrentSpy.com claiming the MPAA hired a hacker to spy on their computers.

PC World reported that Valence Media (TorrentSpy’s parent company) has taken the MPAA to court.

The suit itself reads like a movie script. In it, Valence Media, which operates TorrentSpy.com, claims that in June last year the MPAA hired a man to break into TorrentSpy's computers and steal information. The association did this, the suit says, as part of a "mistaken and misdirected vendetta" against TorrentSpy.

TorrentSpy alleges that in July last year the MPAA paid the hacker $15,000 for the information. TorrentSpy also alleges that the MPAA told the hacker it didn't care how he got the information and that it would protect him from any liability in obtaining the information. The suit does not explain how TorrentSpy discovered the information breach.

This, if the suit is to be believed, is part of an ongoing fight with TorrentSpy and the MPAA. The MPAA has already taken TorrentSpy to court over claims that the company aids in illegal movie file sharing. TorrentSpy technically does not hosted files so claims innocence.

The MPAA needs to follow the lead of networks and movie makers and use the technology to fight piracy and not the courts. But I guess in a way if this story is to be believed they are using technology to fight.

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