TorrentSpy.com and its parent company Valence Media filed additional court documents this week, naming the person the companies claim breached their business systems to gather evidence for the Motion Picture Association of America.

The latest court filings include a statement by Robert Anderson, a resident of Vancouver, Canada, who claims that the MPAA contacted him in June 2005 to provide information on TorrentSpy.com. The Web site allows BitTorrent users to search through files that are being offered by others online, including illegal copies of music and movies. The MPAA sued the Web site in February for contributing to copyright infringement.

In his statement, Anderson claims that, after he told the MPAA he could get the organization nonpublic information from the TorrentSpy.com, the MPAA's in-house counsel told him, "We don't care how you get it." The agreement apparently signed by both parties and attached to the court filing has language, however, that stresses all information would be obtained legally.

The TorrentSpy.com case has risen to prominence because of the hacking charges, but another case--the shutdown of ThePirateBay.org--has also become a focus of digital rights advocates after the U.S. pressured Sweden's government to shutter the site. The music industry has gained similar notoriety because of its lawsuits against more than 17,500 consumers for file swapping and the over-reaching copyright protections that Sony BMG attempted to surreptitiously install on people's computers.

TorrentSpy.com and Valence Media have asked the judge to grant expedited discovery of certain documents related to the alleged hacking.



securityfocus.com