February 15, 2005 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — The Motion Picture Association of America announced last Thursday that Hollywood movie studios have settled a copyright lawsuit against a Web site operator accused of helping users find pirated copies of films for download. LokiTorrent.com hosted torrent file markers used by file-swapping program BitTorrent to scour the Internet for other users sharing a given file.
To settle the lawsuit, the site’s operator Edward Webber agreed to pay a “substantial” fine and submit copies of his computer server logs and data. The records may help the trade group track down more than 750,000 registered users who visited the site and downloaded thousands of files, says John Malcolm, head of the MPAA’s antipiracy division.
The MPAA also assumed control of the LokiTorrent.com domain name, posting a disclaimer against online movie files sharing with the slogan “You can click, but you can’t hide.”
