TvTorrents goes offline
p2pnet.net News:- #TvTorrents @ EFNet – Closed Permanently
That’s all you see when you surf over to the site.
Why has it closed down? No answers, just:
"Sorry, but TVTorrents is down. No, I will not return. Sorry for any hassles. Thanks for all the memories and good times we had together in #tvtorrents. As of now, the channel will remain open, but stay +m (no talking).”
But it would seem some kind of legal action is behind the shut-down.
“Again, sorry for having to leave, but it became necessary,” says the post. “If you can donate to help with the pending settlement, please do so!”
Stay tuned.
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
April 21st, 2005 at 11:38 pm
this is terrible. i heard about it a few hours ago.
btw, what does “stay +m” mean? anyone?
April 21st, 2005 at 11:47 pm
It means moderated, so only people who are “voiced” (+v) and ops can speak.
I am concerned about this story mainly because he appears to be settling. Further to this he is asking for money to pay the settlement. I am concerned that part of the settlement will be logs and data on the users of his site (which has been the pattern so far). Also, by settling he is making the fight even more difficult for the likes of myself and Kevin Reid.
By settling he is admitting guilt and thus giving the **AA an easy victory which they can then use in the future as ammunition in the cases against people who are not settling.
If they can turn round to a judge and say “These 120 other bit torrent site admins have admitted liability and settled, so if they agree they are in violation, how are these other cases any different?” how is that going to look for the defendents?
Alexander Hanff
Owner of http://www.dvdr-core.org
Help support my defence against a $150 million USD action by the MPAA.
April 22nd, 2005 at 2:47 am
quote from slyck forums:
“First off, we didn’t log anyway. None of our trackers logged, none of the websites logged. The logs just get too big, from experience. I have no desire to really chomp through that data, anyway.
Secondly, I had to be vague in the posting, simply due to lack of information on my part. All I know is that I received a call from a law firm today representing the MPAA. They declared that I was being added as a named defendant on a pending case, that was still open for settlement. More than that, I really have nothing. I am adhering to what little information I do have, including asking for donations, but including that as part of the settlement that will hopefully be negotiated on.
I am not a person who has ever done it for the ego, or the one-up-manship, I always was doing it for the public. That being said, I also believe in disclosure, which is why I openly said that the donations would be for settlement, and NOT claiming I will fight them.
At this point in time (2005-04-22 00:51 UTC) I have not retained legal counsel, however I am making steps towards that to negotiate a settlement.
Thanks again to everyone for the words of support, and it was a pleasure to help so many people watch the great works of television they desired (some not so great Very Happy )
-Aurelius”
this was taken from the comments section of the story on Slyck.com
April 22nd, 2005 at 11:39 am
Geez, Alexander… get off your high horse on this. Why does him settling affect the case against you? Judges don’t care what previous sites have done; they look at your case on its merits. They look at case law, not on out of court settlements. What do you expect someone living in the US to do? He’s got a kid, a not-very-well-paying job, and could end up having to pay god knows how much money. You really think he’s going to go through a lengthy court process that he would probably lose? If you want to fight on principle, you go for it. Yay for you. Really. You have fun convincing a court that a tracker isn’t really involved in copyright infringement because it doesn’t actually handle the data. You have the benefit of not living in the US and almost certainly not being subject to any judgment handed down. But let other people do what they like… don’t expect them to stand up and fight just because it might help you and others somewhere down the road.
April 22nd, 2005 at 4:18 pm
Exactly the kind of attitude that has permitted the US legal system to deteriorate into a debt-collection agency for large companies. It’s the Henri-Philippe Petain school of bending over to avoid a beating.
US law is based on English common-law, and strongly relies on legal precedent. People should judge your statement that “Judges don’t care what previous sites have done”, and indeed the rest of your post, with that in mind.
April 22nd, 2005 at 5:03 pm
There is no precedent set if the case is settled without going to trial, which is what has happened with every single case of this type.
April 22nd, 2005 at 5:22 pm
Good point. There’s so many people with so much to lose.