MPAA is Coming After BitTorrent Users

From: WorstPreviews.com

Ever since "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" leaked online, 20th Century Fox, the FBI and the MPAA started a manhunt for the person responsible for stealing a copy of the yet to be released film.

Since "Wolverine" is shared through BitTorrent sites, the MPAA has been doing everything in its power to obtain private emails of TorrentSpy and The Pirate Bay, in order to dig up dirt on their owners and users.

One way the organization has been doing this is by hiring a hacker back in 2005, who has previously configured the TorrentSpy mail server to copy and forward all of the site's emails to his own Gmail account. The 34 pages of information he gathered was then sold to the MPAA for $15,000. TorrentSpy's owner later sued the MPAA, arguing that they had spied on him illegally, but he ended up losing the case.

The court ruled that the MPAA did not technically intercept them under the WireTap Act, but TorrentSpy is calling the decision a "dangerous attempt to circumvent privacy laws." If the ruling is upheld, it will basically legalize the unauthorized copying of other people's emails, which raises serious privacy concerns.

TorrentSpy has now filed a brief at the Court of Appeals and that the MPAA is expected to do the same in the near future. From then on it can take up to a year before the appeal is heard in court.

The point of this story is that if the law sides with the MPAA, everyone who has downloaded a copy of "Wolverine" or uses sharing sites could be at risk.