[Infowarrior] - TorrentSpy ordered to start tracking visitors

[Richard Forno]

TorrentSpy ordered to start tracking visitors

By Greg Sandoval
http://news.com.com/TorrentSpy+ordered+to+start+tracking+visitors/2100-1030_
3-6189866.html

Story last modified Fri Jun 08 19:41:10 PDT 2007


A court decision reached last month but under seal until Friday could force
Web sites to track visitors if the sites become defendants in a lawsuit.

TorrentSpy, a popular BitTorrent search engine, was ordered on May 29 by a
federal judge in the Central District of California in Los Angeles to create
logs detailing users' activities on the site. The judge, Jacqueline
Chooljian, however, granted a stay of the order on Friday to allow
TorrentSpy to file an appeal.

The appeal must be filed by June 12, according to Ira Rothken, TorrentSpy's
attorney.

TorrentSpy has promised in its privacy policy never to track visitors
without their consent.

"It is likely that TorrentSpy would turn off access to the U.S. before
tracking its users," Rothken said. "If this order were allowed to stand, it
would mean that Web sites can be required by discovery judges to track what
their users do even if their privacy policy says otherwise."

The Motion Picture Association of America, which represents Columbia
Pictures and other top Hollywood film studios, sued TorrentSpy and a host of
others in February 2006 as part of a sweep against file-sharing companies.
According to the MPAA, the search engine was sued for allegedly making it
easier to download pirated files.

Representatives of the trade group could not be reached for comment.

The court's decision could have a chilling effect on e-commerce and digital
entertainment sites, said Fred von Lohmann, an attorney with the Electronic
Frontier Foundation. He calls the ruling "unprecedented."
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EFF, which advocates for the public in digital rights' cases, is still
reviewing the court's decision, but von Lohmann calls what he's seen so far
a "troubling court order."

This is believed to be the first time a judge has ordered a defendant to log
visitor activity and then hand over the information to the plaintiff.

"In general, a defendant is not required to create new records to hand over
in discovery," von Lohmann said. "We shouldn't let Web site logging policies
be set by litigation."

Many Web companies keep visitor logs, which can include Internet Protocol
addresses, as well as other information. Some choose not to record this
data, including EFF, von Lohmann said.


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