MPAA Being Sued For Allegedly Hacking Torrentspy

goldaryn writes "Valence Media, the parent company of Torrentspy.com, one of the web's largest torrent search engines, has filed a lawsuit against the MPAA for allegedly hiring a hacker to steal e-mail correspondence and trade secrets. From the suit: 'The Motion Picture Association of America willfully and intentionally obtained without authority, conspired to obtain without authority, purchased, procured, used and disclosed private information that it knew was unlawfully obtained through unauthorized access to Plaintiffs' computer servers and private email accounts, in violation of United States and California privacy and computer security laws.'"

Re:this is funny.

[Toba82]

Does this mean that if the place I fill up my car has one of those displays with stacks of root beer 12 packs at the gas pump I steal a 12 pack from the convenience store I'm not stealing cause I wouldn't have bought it anyways?

No. That's stealing - for the sole reason that the owner no longer has the product. Media piracy is copyright infringement, not stealing. Learn the difference - crimes have different names for a reason.

Re:if the MPAA is sued and loses

[max99ted]

Not only that but big chain renters like Blockbuster and retailers like Walmart will base their purchases on opening weekend success - doesn't do well the first weekend? Chances are good you'll never see it at Walmart and only after time at Blockbuster. Tie that in with the fact that Walmart (the largest single retailer of DVDs and CDs in the USA) only stocks the top movie titles (ie: no catalogue (old stuff) sales for studios or record/publishing companies), and you can see why profits are down and why they need to take these measures to tow the line.

The The Hollywood Economist [slate.com] is an excellent read.

Re:My issue with this...

[John Hasler]

> If you have a legal conviction it would make the civil suit seem solid.
> A civil suit on it's own seems weak.

You've got it backwards. A criminal conviction requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Winning a civil suit requires preponderance of evidence. OJ Simpson was found not guilty but nevertheless lost a subsequent wrongful death suit.

Besides, there's no money in filing a criminal complaint.

Re:if the MPAA is sued and loses

[ewhac]

I saw an interview a long time ago about one of the MPAA techniques to ensure ROI on their turkeys. Multi-screen theaters were extorted into showing and advertising known turkeys to maximize viewers before word spread about how bad the movie really was. They also had to commit to a minimum number of showings. In return, they were "allowed", given the privelege, of showing true blockblosters.

That's called "block booking," and it's been illegal for over 50 years.

Schwab

Re:But

[Red Flayer]

HINT: Take a look at the usernames. Do Roscoe P. Coltrane and Don Johnson ring any bells for you?

If that doesn't help, then it's probably a good thing that you're unfamiliar with those two shows.

Re:Phwew!

[qsqueeq]

eff.org

Re:Is it just me?

[Anonymous Coward]

GAH. It *ISN'T* stealing. It's lots of illegal things: unauthorized access of a computer system, wire fraud, et cetera. It *ISN'T* theft, because theft includes (by definition) the deprivation of the item for its owner.

It's equivalent in the non-digital world would be sneaking into a business office and photocopying all their internal documents. It could only be construed as theft if it was copied onto the hacker's computer, then deleted on torrentSpy's, and even then it would just be a combination of tresspassing and such and destruction of property.

By definition, information can't be 'stolen', because when you take information, you are duplicating it, not depriving the 'owner' of it.

Re:Hoisted By Their Own Petard!

[number11]

didn't Senator Hatch try to push through some legislation a couple years ago that would make this perfectly legal for copyright holders? That's about the time he made the statement about if being OK if the RIAA/MPAA "blew up their computers"

Yes. And about a week later, Senator Hatch got caught running pirated software on his government website.

We didn't hear much from him about blowing up computers after that.