For the idiots out there, a torrent file is a way to share files with others by using a torrent application. I won’t get technical with y’all, it’s just another way of pirating stuff, mostly movies. Now that you are caught up…

One of the biggest Torrent websites out there was called TorrentSpy.com. Let’s remember… Torrent files are not the actually movie, just a way to search for others with that movie that are sharing it. So TorrentSpy.com wasn’t HOSTING anything illegal. Or so they thought.

Late last year TorrentSpy got hit hard by the powers that be, and they ran for the hills. They cut off all visitors with a U.S. IP address. Too little too late. They got shut down a couple weeks ago. Now they owe the movie studios $110 Million dollars.

TorrentSpy bit the dust only weeks ago, shuttering its peer-to-peer file-sharing site. Now a federal judge has ordered the company to pay the Motion Picture Association of America $110 million for infringement of thousands of copyrighted film and TV shows.

In a four-page final ruling issued Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper entered the multimillion-dollar judgment against TorrentSpy parent company Valence Media for willfully inducing, contributing and vicariously allowing copyright infringement on its Web site.

Cooper also issued a permanent injunction against the Web site, which shut down March 24.

The MPAA, which represents the Hollywood studios, filed suit against TorrentSpy in February 2006, claiming that the site’s torrent files were illegally uploaded.

So is this the end of Torrent sites as we know them? Not quite. Hollywood was able to go after TorrentSpy because they were once hosted on American soil. Despite it’s best efforts, the long arm of the Hollywood arm can’t reach over seas where such laws don’t exist.

Of course I would NEVER use the torrent system. But if I did, it would only be for p0rn. I never understood downloading a Hollywood movie, and I never have. Despite the fact that (unlike music) it takes hundreds of people to make a movie and those people should get paid, I never wanted to see a grainy cam-corder filmed movie on my computer screen. And even if you got a great bootleg copy that is ALMOST DVD quality, you wouldn’t know until you downloaded it. So basically you are spending all this time to download something that is probably crap, to watch on your crappy computer. What fun is that?

I want superior quality. I want HDMI. I want Blu-Ray. I want surround sound. And I want this only if I don’t go to the theaters. I’ve seen IRON MAN twice in the theaters. I saw it opening night, and then the following Tuesday. I don’t want to go off on a rant here… but opening night RULES! If you get there early enough and get a good seat, there is nothing to compare to the theater experience. Serious fans are there, and the energy is electric. People cheer and laugh. Cry and gasp. You are literally sharing an experience with hundreds of people at the same time.

I admit I’m getting old. I know that the kids love the IMing, the texting, the Xbox Live. And Xbox Live is great, but you are not a serious gamer until you have played head-to-head with another dude on the same arcade game. The crowd forms around you as you grasp the joystick. Your quarters have been up on the machine for hours. You’ve watched and waited for your turn and now you are up. There is no hiding behind a microphone. No cozy couch or basement. It’s you and this other dude. You can smell the sweat from his body, hear the crowd cheer, and feel that slippery joystick or trackball in your hand. This is competition. One chance…

That’s HUMAN interaction, and no matter WHAT technology can come up with, there is nothing like it. Arcades are a thing of the past, let’s not send theaters there as well.

I’m not telling you to stop downloading. If you want to be a thief, that’s your decision. What I am going to do is ASK you to go to the movies this summer. Enjoy it while you can. Enjoy every last bit of it. Enjoy the stale popcorn and the sticky floor. Enjoy the cheering crowds and the hot chick in the row ahead of you. Enjoy holding in your pee because you don’t want to miss a minute of this great thing we call the movies.

Enjoy it… who knows how long we will have it.