BitTorrent tracker site sued by movie studios, will mount defense

December 30, 2004

Loki Torrent, a site that tracks links to BitTorrent files, was sued by the motion picture industry for copyright infringement on December 14, 2004, but has decided to mount a legal defense. The site operators have set up a legal defense fund in order to raise the $30,000 per month they estimate will be necessary to cover legal costs. The suit was filed in a U.S. District Court in Texas on behalf of Columbia Pictures – a major movie studio. The lawsuit is part of the MPAA campaign to crack down on Internet piracy.

The lawsuit did not initially mention the site's operator, Edward Webber &mdash; instead, the suit was filed against a set of people named "John Doe" to be identified at a later point.

Loki Torrent's popularity had increased dramatically in recent days after the prominent BitTorrent site SuprNova.org shut down in a preemptive move to avoid a lawsuit.