Visitors to TorrentSpy are now being greeted with a brief message announcing the BitTorrent tracker's closure effective March 24. The shutdown comes in the wake of a December 2007 court decision that went against TorrentSpy, in which a federal judge awarded the MPAA a default judgment after finding that the site's admins systematically destroyed evidence.

"We have decided on our own, not due to any court order or agreement, to bring the TorrentSpy.com search engine to an end and thus we permanently closed down worldwide on March 24, 2008," reads the announcement at the site. The TorrentSpy team calls the legal climate for copyright and privacy "simply too hostile," saying that the court's demands left it unable to adequately protect its users' privacy.

In a statement, the MPAA took issue with TorrentSpy's take on its decision to close up shop. "TorrentSpy's characterization of the site’s closure as a voluntary decision conveniently ignores the fact that after two years of intense litigation by the major Hollywood studios, a federal court found TorrentSpy liable for copyright infringement," said John Malcolm, director of worldwide anti-piracy operations for the MPAA.

Malcolm called the closure a "clear victory" for Big Content, noting that the site's operators are on the hook for millions of dollars.



TorrentSpy's farewell message to its users

The MPAA sued TorrentSpy and a handful of other BitTorrent portals in February 2006 as part of its ongoing crackdown against illicit P2P traffic. TorrentSpy fought back tooth and nail, filing a countersuit against the MPAA in May 2006 for conspiracy and invasion of privacy. In the meantime, the site's admins were frantically trying to cover their tracks, destroying documents and other incriminating evidence, according to court filings.

As the case inched forward, Judge Florence-Marie Cooper ordered TorrentSpy to begin logging the IP addresses of users. Her reasoning was that since the IP addresses were temporarily present in the server's RAM, they could be logged and handed over to the MPAA. After the ruling TorrentSpy began filtering copyrighted content, later blocking searches from US IP addresses.

Shutting TorrentSpy down and potentially getting a nine-figure judgment against the site's operators (good luck collecting) is a small victory for the MPAA, but the group knows that there's still a long fight ahead. "Look, this is an uphill battle," Malcolm told Ars in an interview earlier this week. "Content providers can't afford to sit by and do nothing. We've seen some successes, but there is lots of work ahead of us."

Indeed there is. Although its admins are under indictment, The Pirate Bay continues to thumb its nose at Big Content, with Peter Sunde telling Ars that Swedish law is on The Pirate Bay's side. Earlier this week, a lawsuit against an Icelandic torrent site was dismissed, and many other torrent sites continue to operate with impunity outside of the US, beyond of the reach of the MPAA's attempts to knock them off the 'Net... so far.

Turning ISPs into copyright cops looks to be the MPAA's best bet, but the group faces a long, uphill battle to make that a reality. It would require ISPs to filter, and, in all likelihood, turn of the 'Net connections of recidivists as is planned in France. ISPs are less than enthusiastic about the prospect, with AT&T the only major ISP to say that it plans to begin filtering traffic. Others, like Verizon, are publicly dismissive of the idea.