Torrentspy files to dismiss MPAA charges

Torrentspy has filed a "Motion to Dismiss" a lawsuit brought by the major film studios accusing it of breach of copyright.

Torrentspy is not accused of actual copyright infringement but of helping such infringments to happen. It operates a website which acts as a search engine for BitTorrent files - it does not host such files and claims to obey requests made by rights holders to remove links to copyright files.

The company insists it has always co-operated when asked to remove links to copyrighted material.

Lawyers for Torrentspy say the case should be dismissed because it does not provide any evidence of primary infringement. They say the complaint fails to prove allegations of secondary responsibility.

The Memorandum to support the Motion to Dismiss says: "Plaintiffs are attempting to steamroller defendants by means of an improper pleading. At the level of concrete specificity, the complaint is fatally defective in lacking allegations of any actual infringement. Not a single element of any cause of action is properly alleged. Allegations about defendants' supposed wrongdoing are nothing more than attempts to create impressions that are devoid of substance." Read the rest of it in a pdf. here.

The major film studios and the Motion Picture Ass. of America filed a collection of complaints at the end of February against various BitTorrent sites, newsgroups and search engines.®