Studios Win Suit Against TorrentSpy

A federal judge has put an early end to a copyright infringement trial, finding online file-sharing service TorrentSpy.com liable for movie piracy. In a victory for Paramount Pictures and other film studios, the Los Angeles court ruled that the operators of TorrentSpy destroyed evidence and made false statements under oath, the Wall Street Journal reports.

TorrentSpy, a site with LA-based management and Amsterdam-based servers, runs one of the Web's largest torrent trackers, helping people track down movies and other material to download. TorrentSpy's search features are closed off to US Web surfers but can be accessed easily from abroad. The court will rule later on the dollar value of damages. (More Los Angeles stories.)