Moviemakers hit by Torrent hacker claim
Published: 25 May 2006 09:45 BST
The Motion Picture Association of America hired a hacker to steal information from a company it has accused of helping copyright violators, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
The lawsuit filed in US District Court in California by Torrentspy.com parent Valence Media doesn't identify the man the company says was approached by an MPAA executive. But the suit calls him a former associate of one of the plaintiffs who was asked to retrieve private information on Torrentspy.com, a search engine that directs users to download links.
Among Torrentspy's claims is that the man whom the MPAA allegedly paid $15,000 to steal email correspondence and trade secrets has admitted his role in the plot and is cooperating with the company.
"It is a Hollywood drama, what happened here," Ira Rothken, Torrentspy's lawyer, said in a telephone interview Wednesday evening.
The allegations come three months after the MPAA sued Torrentspy and other Torrent directories for allegedly making it easier for pirates to distribute movies over the Internet.
"These claims (by Torrentspy) are false," said Kori Bernards, the MPAA's vice-president of corporate communications, in an email to CNET News.com. "Torrentspy is trying to obscure the facts to hide the fact that they are facilitating thievery. We are confident that our lawsuit against them will be successful because the law is on our side."
The suit filed by the MPAA was a departure from the organisation's previous strategy of going after Web sites that were directly involved in facilitating file sharing. By suing Torrentspy, as well as such companies as IsoHunt, BTHub.com, and TorrentBox.com, MPAA was declaring that it saw little difference between the the file-swapping networks that the studios have aggressively taken to court and those companies that direct people to works that may be protected by copyrights.
One MPAA executive is quoted in Torrentspy's lawsuit saying: "We don't care how you get it," referring to the alleged assignment to retrieve information on Torrentspy.
Some of the information the man allegedly pilfered included a spreadsheet containing Torrentspy income and expenses from January to June of 2005, copies of private emails between Torrentspy employees, detailed information on the company's servers, and billing information, according to the filing.
Torrentspy alleges in the suit that the man, whom the company refers to as the "informant", has provided documents that prove the nature of his relationship with the MPAA, including a written agreement signed by the hacker and an MPAA executive, said Torrentspy attorney Rothken.
"We have very significant proof of wrongdoing and the MPAA's involvement," Rothken said. "We think it's ironic for the MPAA to claim that they are protecting the rights of the movie studios and then go out and pirate other people's property."
Rothken said the MPAA paid the hacker to "gather nonpublic information" about other Torrent sites. Rothken declined to specify which companies.
Following this, the "informant" had a change of heart and contacted Torrentspy.
"By doing that, he's mitigating the harm that he did," Rothken said. "He is also allowing us to get a remedy against the MPAA and to help us stop them from using the stolen data."
Torrentspy has asked the court for unspecified damages and a jury trial.
CNET News.com's Joris Evers contributed to this report.
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