TorrentSpy hit with $111 million fine for copyright violation

BitTorrent tracker TorrentSpy may have shut down last month, but that wasn't enough to prevent a federal judge from slapping the site with a $111 million fine yesterday. While BitTorrent didn't host any copyrighted materials on their own servers, the service did make it easy for users to illegally trade files. And the judge ruled that TorrentSpy's operators should pay $30,000 for each of the 3,699 instances of copyright infringement shown in the case.

Anyone familiar with sites like TorrentSpy knows that it's possible the site got off easy, as there were probably far more than 3699 copyrighted files made available through the site. On the other hand, TorrentSpy has already declared bankrupty and is incapable of paying the high fine. If the site hadn't already shut down, this ruling would most certainly have forced it to do so. A lawyer for TorrentSpy says the company plans to appeal.

This case was the first major test of the legality of BitTorrent sites in the US. Something tells us it won't be the last.

[Via: Download Squad ]
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TorrentSpy hit with $111 million fine for copyright violation

BitTorrent tracker TorrentSpy may have shut down last month, but that wasn't enough to prevent a federal judge from slapping the site with a $111 million fine yesterday. While BitTorrent didn't host any copyrighted materials on their own servers, the service did make it easy for users to illegally trade files. And the judge ruled that TorrentSpy's operators should pay $30,000 for each of the 3,699 instances of copyright infringement shown in the case.

Anyone familiar with sites like TorrentSpy knows that it's possible the site got off easy, as there were probably far more than 3699 copyrighted files made available through the site. On the other hand, TorrentSpy has already declared bankrupty and is incapable of paying the high fine. If the site hadn't already shut down, this ruling would most certainly have forced it to do so. A lawyer for TorrentSpy says the company plans to appeal.

This case was the first major test of the legality of BitTorrent sites in the US. Something tells us it won't be the last.

[Via: Download Squad ]
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Skype for Windows hits version 3.8

Less than a month after releasing a public beta of Skype 3.8 for Windows, the company has launched a public version of the updated internet telephony client.

As a point release, you shouldn't expect to find a ton of new features in Skype 3.8. Most of the changes are under the hood, but users should notice improved call quality, meaning fewer dropped calls, less delay, and less background noise. The new version should also do a better job of automatically configuring your firewall and router settings.

Skype has also hidden away user profile images from incoming requests. This might not sound like a big deal, but if you've ever received a request from someone with an avatar you'd rather not display on your work computer, this update could be a life saver. [Via: Download Squad ] [Tag: ]

LOOKTorrent: It's like YouTorrent but less useful

Now that YouTorrent is exclusively dedicated to boring, legal torrents, you might be looking for another BitTorrent search engine that searches a large number of BitTorrent trackers. LOOKTorrent fits the bill. Kind of.

The site lets you choose from a list of 25 BitTorrent trackers that you want to search. Enter your search term, and you'll start to find results from those pages. But unlike YouTorrent, which combines the results from each site onto one easy to use page, LOOKTorrent basically takes you to Mininova, The Pirate Bay, or whatever other sites you choose, while keeping a LOOKTorrent navigation tab at the top of the screen. If you don't find what you're looking for at one site, you can search the next. One at a time.

LOOKtorrent could come in handy if you can't find what you're looking for on one site, and need a good list of 25 BitTorrent trackers. But if you want all of your results on one page, you're probably better off with NowTorrents, ScrapeTorrent, or PizzaTorrent.


[Via: MakeUseOf ]
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Pirate Bay gets a new name: Liberty Bay?

Perhaps it's a blatant F.U. to content creators everywhere or maybe it's just an F.U. to Rockstar, but the Pirate Bay has gone out of its way to temporarily rename itself "Liberty Bay" in honor of the upcoming Grand Theft Auto IV.

The purpose for the publicity stunt is unclear, but -- considering the company's line of work -- it's likely to get the word out on the highly-rumored rumored Grand Theft Auto IV torrents that all the young kids blab about nowadays. Though we don't think the site's blog will address the gutsy move unless Rockstar starts throwing a fit, we'll let you know if things gets messy.


[Via: Kotaku ]
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