Spoliation Sinks TorrentSpy

Information Management Journal, Mar/Apr 2008 by Swartz, Nikki

In a case closely watched by those interested in copyright law and peer-to-peer (P2P) networking, a federal judge handed the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) a victory after ruling that file-sharing firm TorrentSpy had destroyed evidence and provided false evidence in the case.

The MPAA had brought a copyright infringement lawsuit against TorrentSpy, claiming that it had acted illegally by copying and distributing via P2P networks movie and television shows.

Judge Florence-Marie Cooper ruled against the defendants in Columbia Pictures et al, v. Justin Bunnell et al, after finding that TorrentSpy "engaged in widespread and systematic efforts to destroy evidence" and lied under oath about that destruction.

After receiving the complaint, TorrentSpy officials tried to bury their tracks, according to Judge Cooper's ruling. One of the defendants, Wes Parker, gave the go-ahead for a TorrentSpy moderator to create a hidden online forum and move incriminating content there. Administrators also renamed copyrighted works posted in TorrentSpy forums to disguise them. They also failed to provide the MPAA with full IP addresses of forum users, testifying under oath that they were not available even though forum conversations revealed that full addresses were logged until April 2007.

Cooper had ordered TorrentSpy to log its users' IP addresses and turn them over to the MPAA. Since the IP addresses were temporarily present in RAM, the judge said, the site could be forced to keep logs of them. Just two weeks later, the ruling says, TorrentSpy belatedly began filtering copyrighted content, and, two months after that, began blocking searches by users in the United States.

"The defendant's conduct during discovery in this case has been obstreperous," Cooper said. "They have engaged in widespread and systematic efforts to destroy evidence and have provided false testimony under oath in an effort to hide evidence of such destruction. Although termination of a case is a harsh sanction appropriate only in 'extraordinary circumstances,' the circumstances in this case are sufficiently extraordinary to merit such a sanction."

The lawyer representing TorrentSpy.com said the ruling will be appealed.