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The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) described the allegation that it offered $15,000 for information stolen from the website as 'baseless'.

In a court filing, TorrentSpy's operator, Valence Media, alleges that the offer was made by MPAA director of legal affairs Dean Garfield

'The MPAA, through Dean Garfield, offered to pay the informant $15,000 for information he obtained and provided about the TorrentSpy.com website and the individuals involved with it, after he and the MPAA reviewed it, if they found it useful,' the filing alleges.

It goes on to claim that Garfield would protect the informant.

'"We don't care how you get it,"' Garfield is alleges to have said. The filing then says: 'He assured the informant, when the informant expressed concerns about potential liability for obtaining or providing such information to the MPAA, that the MPAA would protect the informant from

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any liability for obtaining or providing such information.

The MPAA dismissed the allegations as 'baseless'.

'TorrentSpy is trying to obscure the facts to hide the fact that they are facilitating thievery,' said spokeswoman Kori Bernards. 'We are confident that our lawsuit against them will be successful because the law is on our side.'

TorrentSpy lawyer Ira Rothken said it was 'particularly notable' that the MPAA had not specifically denied entering into an agreement with the hacker and that it was 'ironic' that an anti-piracy organisation had engaged in piracy.

'The MPAA by calling the "hacking" suit "baseless" is obscuring the fact that the MPAA engaged in piracy and corporate espionage when they paid a hacker for getting trade secrets from TorrentSpy they were not authorised to have,' he told p2pnet.

Valence Media's claims are a response to the MPAA's attempt to shut down TorrentSpy, claiming that it and other, similar websites 'facilitate infringements of copyrighted works by millions of people by providing searchers with the locations to find pirated movies'.

The TorrentSpy owners argue that they are not liable for the exchanging of copyright files as the website is merely a search engine and does not host any offending content. Their lawyers are asking the court to stop the MPAA using any information it may have obtained from the hacker.