Friday, May 26, 2006

Lawsuit Accuses MPAA Of Hiring Hacker

The Motion Picture Association of America has been accused of hiring a hacker to spy on Torrentspy.com, an online file swapping site, to obtain private information. According to a lawsuit filed by Valence Media and posted online, which operates Torrentspy, the MPAA allegedly paid $15,000 to a hacker to steal e-mail and trade secrets from the company. Valence Media is seeking damages and injunctive relief against the MPAA. The MPAA had charged Torrentspy with facilitating movie piracy earlier this year. Torrentspy provides a service that allows users to find files online using the peer to peer file swapping software BitTorrent. The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court, Central District.