Six days before movie studios were set to begin a jury trial over alleged copyright violations by the "cyberlocker" site Hotfile, the case has settled. Hotfile has agreed to pay $80 million and to stop operating "unless it employs copyright filtering technologies that prevent infringement," according to a press release sent out today by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

The MPAA represents America's major movie studios, which sued Hotfile over copyright violations in 2011. The case was finally teed up for a trial that was to begin next Monday, December 9. A Friday order by US District Judge Kathleen Williams settled a variety of pre-trial issues, including a ban on MPAA lawyers using "pejorative" terms like "piracy" or "theft."

The trial would have likely focused heavily on damages, since Williams already ruled that Hotfile was not eligible for the DMCA "safe harbor" and that it was going to be liable for the actions of its users. Hotfile employed an incentive system to encourage downloading and paid users who uploaded popular files, including copyrighted files. The service went beyond storage and was effectively a "distribution" business, Williams held. She also held Hotfile employee Anton Titov, whom the MPAA describes as the company's "principal," liable for the infringement.

Hotfile also didn't terminate the accounts of many repeat infringers. It received 10 million DMCA notices from copyright holders before the lawsuit was filed in 2011, but only terminated 43 accounts, according to Williams' August order (PDF).

The studios did their own study of downloads on Hotfile, which is cited in the August ruling. They found that their copyrighted content made up ten percent of all Hotfile downloads.

The MPAA touted that ruling as a big win, since it was the first ruling that a "cyberlocker" site can be liable for its users' copyright violations. Today's settlement marks the final termination of litigation against Hotfile.

"This judgment by the court is another important step toward protecting an Internet that works for everyone," said MPAA CEO Chris Dodd in the press release. "Sites like Hotfile that illegally profit off of the creativity and hard work of others do a serious disservice to audiences who deserve high-quality, legitimate viewing experiences online."

A lawyer representing Hotfile confirmed there was a settlement but otherwise declined to comment.

It isn't clear how much of the $80 million damages judgment Hotfile will be able to pay. Hotfile's figures show that the site was hosting 123 million files, which were downloaded 2.9 billion times by 5.3 million registered users. "This has worked a significant financial benefit to Hotfile and its founders," wrote Williams in her August order, which redacts the details of those benefits.

Hotfile began using filtering technology to identify copyrighted content in late 2011, several months after the lawsuit was filed.