TorrentSpy out of luck in email hacking suit

A lawsuit filed last year by TorrentSpy - a BitTorrent search engine - that accused the movie studios' trade group of intercepting the company's private emails, was tossed out of court last week.

But while a US District judge found that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) had not violated the federal Wiretap Act, as TorrentSpy's attorneys had argued, the MPAA acknowledged in court records that it paid $15,000 to obtain private emails belonging to TorrentSpy executives.

The MPAA's acknowledgement is significant because it comes at a time when the group is trying to limit illegal file-sharing by imploring movie fans to act ethically and resist the temptation to download pirated movies. To critics, the revelation by the MPAA is an indication it is itself not above adopting unethical practices in its fight against file sharing.

Lorrie Cranor, an associate research professor and internet privacy expert at Carnegie Mellon University, said: "Ethically, it's pretty clear that reading other people's email is wrong. Being offered someone else's emails by a third party should have been a red flag."

The MPAA, which says that illegal file-sharing costs the film industry more than $2bn annually, did not respond to interview requests.

In court records, the MPAA said the person who obtained the emails did so before approaching the group with an offer to sell the information and that he signed a contract stating he had come by the correspondence through lawful means.

Ira Rothken, TorrentSpy's attorney said: "We believe that the MPAA, when it paid $15,000 for about 30 pages of emails, knew or should have known they were involved in purchasing something in a wrongful manner."

Rothken said TorrentSpy will appeal the court's decision that the pilfering of TorrentSpy's email did not violate the Wiretap Act.

According to court documents, the MPAA came into possession of the emails after first being approached by Robert Anderson. Anderson is a former business associate of Justin Bunnell, TorrentSpy's founder.

Anderson allegedly "hacked" into TorrentSpy's email system and rigged it so that "every incoming and outgoing email message would also be copied and forwarded to his anonymous Google email account", records show.

Anderson contacted Dean Garfield, the MPAA's senior legal counsel, in June 2005. Anderson told Garfield he had an informant who supplied him with the emails.

District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper also agreed with the MPAA that TorrentSpy failed to prove the information obtained by Anderson qualified as trade secrets.

Greg Sandoval writes for CNET News.com