MPAA Says No To Suing Movie Fans, Yes To Purchasing E-mails

It’s no surprise that companies whine about things for the wrong reasons, and it’s also no surprise that they’d complain about illegal practices that effect their product, but then go behind everyone’s back and take part in shady practices themselves. Take the MPAA, who constantly complains about the harsh effects of piracy on their business, despite the fact that movie sales are at a record high.

Recently, it came about that they would not be suing movie fans, which helped clean up their image a little bit. Until now, where it has become public knowledge that they paid $15,000 for private e-mails from a prior TorrentSpy employee. As it turns out, the MPAA didn’t do anything illegal, since the ex-employee signed an affidavit noting that they were gathered using legal means. When will the movie industry worry about more important things? Such as continuing to create blockbuster movies that helped it hit a record high this past summer.

When TorrentSpy found out this had happened, it sued the MPAA for violating federal wiretap rules. A judge recently tossed out the case, saying that the MPAA’s actions were legal. The group claimed that its informant, a former TorrentSpy employee, signed an affidavit saying that the e-mails had been acquired legally (turns out that he had hacked into the mail server and forwarded the e-mails to a Gmail account of his own).

Source: Ars Technica