Lawsuits Against Torrent Engines
Torrent engines allow the distribution of very valuable materials. A lot of them are non-copyrighted and perfectly legal for distribution, but unfortunately some of them are pirated materials. That is why from time to time major Hollywood Studios accuse torrent directories such as torrentspy.com of distributing pirated material. In case of torrentspy.com, they won the battle. The court ordered torrentspy.com to pay $110,970,000 for distributing 3,699 films and shows. In my opinion, this number is quite hilarious, as I doubt that torrentspy.com has more than a couple of thousand of dollars lying around. Having said that, it is a decisive victory for Hollywood Studios, and even though they will probably not receive this amount of money, they definitely made a point. This is a great example of how justice works.
There is a bit different situation with MPAA, which has been vigorously engaged in fighting piracy for many years. The question arises if lawsuits will really help them win this war. MPAA has filled a lawsuit against a site that allegedly profits from piracy by indexing and posting links to what is believed to be pirated content. What is really interesting about this case is that MPAA was giving away free publicity to a mostly unknown site. Many people flocked to this site, which I prefer not to mention, to check out the site and see what it offers. This was especially true as there was a risk that it could shut down permanently. This site might have actually benefited more from this lawsuit than it had to lose.
As you see, there are some battles won against distributors of illegal content. However, there are also some battles that are lost. It is important that companies choose their battles wisely, because they cannot win all of them.
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