The dispute between the MPAA and TorrentSpy, a very popular BitTorrent website, has begun a long time ago after TorrentSpy was accused of promoting and enhancing illegal downloads to users in the entire world. Today, it may look like the folks at MPAA have won the battle with their rivals as TorrentSpy announced the permanent shutdown, a decision imposed by the administrators of the service and not by the judge's ruling, as the TorrentSpy team mentioned on the official page.

"We have decided on our own, not due to any court order or agreement, to bring the Torrentspy.com search engine to an end and thus we permanently closed down worldwide on March 24, 2008," it is mentioned on the official website of the BitTorrent website. "The legal climate in the USA for copyright, privacy of search requests, and links to torrent files in search results is simply too hostile. We spent the last two years, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, defending the rights of our users and ourselves."

Some time ago, due to a court ruling, TorrentSpy was forced to disclose information regarding the users who access the website, such as IP address and the files they download. Because they didn't agree with the decision, the TorrentSpy team banned the access of the American users, pointing to the privacy guidelines that strictly prohibited disclosing users' information.

"Ultimately the Court demanded actions that in our view were inconsistent with our privacy policy, traditional court rules, and International law; therefore, we now feel compelled to provide the ultimate method of privacy protection for our users - permanent shutdown," the TorrentSpy Team wrote on the website.

So, one of the main players on this side of the market has bit the dust. IsoHunt and other important names are now brought in the spotlight as they promote the same services as TorrentSpy. Going on the legal side would be a smart choice, don't you think?