Hairbautt
07-21-2008, 11:36 AM
http://filesharingtalk.com/vb3/picture.php?albumid=25&pictureid=45"As the legal issues surrounding file-sharing heat up in the UK, more and more recipients of compensation demands are considering their defense. One such possibility is the ‘wireless’ or ‘WiFi’ defense. We take a look at the issue and try to shine some light on what people can expect, should they take this route."
"As long as there have been lawsuits against alleged file-sharers, there have been people claiming that they did not do what the anti-piracy agencies are alleging. In a practical world, although it should be possible for competent groups and individuals to identify an IP address infringing copyright, it is known worldwide that many anti-piracy outfits are simply not competent. They send warnings or compensation demands to laser printers and hundreds of other non-infringing users and devices, such as the user in Germany recently who proved to be using a client which wasn’t capable of infringing. Even the MPAA acknowledges that it’s so difficult to gather evidence to use in these cases that feels it shouldn’t have to provide any.
Let’s imagine for a moment that these anti-piracy tracking companies operate 100% flawless systems (I know, I know…) That they have opened up their systems for scrutiny, and that they can correctly identify an infringing IP address 100% of the time. Surely if we reached this point, there can be no further dispute? Well, not quite. Although the identification of an infringing IP address should be possible, in the absence of spy cameras it is absolutely impossible to identify the user sitting at the keyboard at the time of the alleged infringement. Add a wireless router into the mix and the infringer on the network could be just about anyone within its range. Add an unsecured wireless router in a densely populated area, and it’s happy hour at lawsuit hotel.
However, this doesn’t put off lawyers from sending out compensation claims as they only target the bill payer. Since the UK law firm Davenport Lyons are leading the chasing of alleged file-sharers in the UK, we’ll look at their cases. Davenport acknowledge in their compensation-demanding letters that the bill payer may not be responsible for the infringement - but nevertheless, that doesn’t stop them from threatening them anyway. So what happens when a bill payer is accused of an infringement he knows he did not commit?"
:source: Source: Full Article @ TorrentFreak (http://torrentfreak.com/uk-file-sharers-and-the-wireless-defense-080717/)
"As long as there have been lawsuits against alleged file-sharers, there have been people claiming that they did not do what the anti-piracy agencies are alleging. In a practical world, although it should be possible for competent groups and individuals to identify an IP address infringing copyright, it is known worldwide that many anti-piracy outfits are simply not competent. They send warnings or compensation demands to laser printers and hundreds of other non-infringing users and devices, such as the user in Germany recently who proved to be using a client which wasn’t capable of infringing. Even the MPAA acknowledges that it’s so difficult to gather evidence to use in these cases that feels it shouldn’t have to provide any.
Let’s imagine for a moment that these anti-piracy tracking companies operate 100% flawless systems (I know, I know…) That they have opened up their systems for scrutiny, and that they can correctly identify an infringing IP address 100% of the time. Surely if we reached this point, there can be no further dispute? Well, not quite. Although the identification of an infringing IP address should be possible, in the absence of spy cameras it is absolutely impossible to identify the user sitting at the keyboard at the time of the alleged infringement. Add a wireless router into the mix and the infringer on the network could be just about anyone within its range. Add an unsecured wireless router in a densely populated area, and it’s happy hour at lawsuit hotel.
However, this doesn’t put off lawyers from sending out compensation claims as they only target the bill payer. Since the UK law firm Davenport Lyons are leading the chasing of alleged file-sharers in the UK, we’ll look at their cases. Davenport acknowledge in their compensation-demanding letters that the bill payer may not be responsible for the infringement - but nevertheless, that doesn’t stop them from threatening them anyway. So what happens when a bill payer is accused of an infringement he knows he did not commit?"
:source: Source: Full Article @ TorrentFreak (http://torrentfreak.com/uk-file-sharers-and-the-wireless-defense-080717/)