The famous torrent search engine TorrentSpy was banned in the United States and blocked the access of the local consumers on the official page of the service after a judge demanded the owners of the product to disclose private information about the users. Until the lawyers appeal the decision, TorrentSpy will remain unavailable for the US consumers but it will continue to be opened for other users since the main servers are located in Netherlands. It seems like this move was especially meant to protect the users from disclosing the private information that might be used to identify and to prosecute them.

In a blog post published on the main TorrentSpy website, the owner of the service informs the users about the decision but avoids saying when the website will rebecome available for the US residents.

"Torrentspy, an International search engine that provides links to torrent files, has decided to stop accepting visitors from the United States. Torrentspy's servers are located in the Netherlands and is subject to International privacy laws including those in the European Union. Torrentspy has a strong privacy policy protecting site users against the linking of personal identifying information to searches absent user consent," the message reads.

Although TorrentSpy took the decision of banning the United States, the owners of the service will continue to fight with the Motion Picture Association of America, the organization which sued TorrentSpy. Ira Rothken, the website's attorney, said they will continue the legal fight because the company doesn't want to infringe its privacy guidelines and to provide private information about the users.

"It's axiomatic that when you have a privacy policy which promises in essence that a search engine is not going to tie personally identified information to the searches that you do that you have the ability to honor it and that a court cannot usurp that promise, especially when users do not get proper notice and an opportunity to get heard," he said according to Wired News.