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View Full Version : RIAA’s IP Gathering Techniques Are Possibly Unlawful



popopot
05-17-2007, 01:17 PM
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/7710/riaa4wt.gif
In the UMG vs. Lindor case, a statement by the expert witness Dr. Johan Pouwelse has lead to a Dutch court concluding that the RIAA's data gathering techniques are unlawful and should not be used as legal evidence. From TorrentFreak:

"Dr. Pouwelse is hired by Ray Beckerman, Mrs Lindor’s lawyer, to give his expert opinion on the RIAA’s IP-harvesting techniques.

Among others, the RIAA hires the US based company MediaSentry to monitor file-sharing networks for infringements of their client’s media. MediaSentry’s job is to identify and trace IP addresses they claim are engaged in such activity.

MediaSentry’s effectiveness has been called into question by Dr. Pouwelse in Foundation v. UPC Nederland. It was concluded that the “shoddy” way MediaSentry collects and processes IP addresses has no lawful basis. When the US court reaches the same conclusions, this will have great implications for many other RIAA lawsuits.

As Jon from P2Pnet puts it; “Pouwelse’s evidence will be a landmark and it’ll be re-employed by attorneys the length and breadth of America who are working to prove the innocence of their clients who, like Mrs Lindor, are falsely held up to be unprincipled, hard-core criminals and thieves.”

Pouwelse is founding father of the Tribler BitTorrent client and currently employed as an Assistant Professor at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands."

:source: Source: TorrentFreak (http://torrentfreak.com/riaas-ip-gathering-techniques-about-to-be-busted/)

4play
05-17-2007, 01:37 PM
The title is completely inaccurate. he hasn't proved anything in an American court yet so jumping for joy is very premature.

ulun64
05-28-2007, 05:30 AM
At least, it's good news to all torrents freak out there.

mbucari1
05-28-2007, 08:01 AM
hmm, the phrase "no shit" comes to mind. Gathering personal info about individuals by a non-government entity. I hope the courts see it this way.

4play
05-29-2007, 01:35 PM
hmm, the phrase "no shit" comes to mind. Gathering personal info about individuals by a non-government entity. I hope the courts see it this way.

since when is logging ip addresses that are public collecting personal information. my apache server does just that every time someone connects to me is this illegal?

What this fella is going to attack in court is the methods of collection.

What guarentees do they have that the information is 100% correct?

what methods do they use to collect this information and is it actually admissible in court?

has the phone company handed the correct information over regarding the connection used ? (there has been cases where the isp's send the wrong information and people who were not even customers at the alleged time of infringement have been fingered)

can they prove that the individual being sued for infringed copyright was the users of the computer at that time or has someone hopped onto there wifi connection.

was the file being downloaded actually owned by the plaintiff or was it fake?