| AnythingOldPosted at 2019-07-21 04:45:15(282Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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|  What do you do if you get busted for pirating a terrible Adam Sandler movie? Deny it. That seems to be the lesson of a recently dismissed federal case, which raises the burden of proof that copyright owner must meet in order to hold you accountable for infringement. TorrentFreak reports that Oregon District Court Magistrate Judge Stacie Beckerman dismissed a case against Thomas Gonzales, who was accused of illegally downloading Adam Sandler’s The Cobbler. Beckerman states that IP-addresses aren’t enough to prove that Gonzales was directly involved with copyright infringement. You see, Gonzales runs an adult foster care home, and he wasn’t the only person with access to the internet. There’s simply no direct way to pinpoint that it was he who was guilty of the act. Beckerman argues that you can’t hold someone accountable for copyright infringement unless you can prove they did it. “The only facts Plaintiff pleads in support of its allegation that Gonzales is the infringer, is that he is the subscriber of the IP address used to download or distribute the movie, and that he was sent notices of infringing activity to which he did not respond. That is not enough.” This seems reasonable. There’s no guarantee that judges across the country will use the same standard, though. Hollywood hasn’t and definitely won’t stop making attempts to get money from pirates who download their films and that’s fine. They have a right to protect their property, but at the same time, Hollywood must also have more to go on than just IP-addresses as hard proof of accessing illegal content, especially since it’s hard to tell if it’s actually you doing the downloading in the location where you have internet access. At least do better than The Cobbler. [TorrentFreak] | |
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| MafketelPosted at 2019-07-21 08:13:19(282Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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| Pmsl.... Getting caught for just that....... Omg..... Then you really feel screwed over... They still make plenty of money and still they have to go after us. | |
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| XannyFamilyPosted at 2021-01-06 21:45:57(206Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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| In the UK there was a law firm sending threatening letters to suspected pirates based on IP addresses. They would go to the courts, ask the ISP to hand over subscriber info for certain IPs, and send letters threatening legal action unless you paid to make it all go away. The amount would start at £500 but keep going up if you didn't pay. Sounds a bit like extortion doesn't it? The SRA (the regulator for law firms) agreed and investigated the company and its owner. They got a lot of complaints and there was a lot of bad press especially since letters often went to the wrong people. There were many stories in the news about how couples in their 80's who could barely use a TV were being sent threatening letters demanding money because they supposedly pirated some random porn video. By the end it was almost always porn because no reputable companies wanted to work with them. The funny thing is only a handful of those cases ever went to court. Usually if you simply wrote back denying the accusation they left you alone because they knew they couldn't actually prove anything. The law firm won no cases because it was ruled an IP address is not enough to tie anything to a specific individual. Eventually the ISPs just stopped complying with the court orders to hand over customer data and even the BPI (the British equivalent of the RIAA) attacked their legal practices. Ultimately the owner of the law firm was banned from practicing law, he declared bankruptcy, his company went out of business, and they even got hacked leading to a huge data breach. Not only did he get fined £80k for legal malpractice but also a grand for data protection breaches. The ICO said if it wasn't for the fact they were already bankrupt it would have been £200k just for the data breach. You can read all about it here if anyone's curious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACS:Law Since then no one has bothered to go after people for torrenting in the UK and this was 10 years ago. It's smart to use a VPN anyway but the most I've ever heard happen is some ISPs will send emails asking you nicely to please stop. Very British. I see the shit the RIAA and MPAA get up to in the US and it is crazy how they get away with it despite all the bad PR from suing children and poor people and whoever else. | |
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| ElsielPosted at 2021-04-02 12:35:14(193Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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| I would agree that in some cases Ip addresses cannot be considered as a proper legal evidence in such a case. I mean, let's be honest, how many of us are using vpn, proxy servers and many other things trying to hide your own ips? I think it is kind of 8 people out of 10! A friend of mine has actually been in a really terrible situation a couple of weeks ago. He has always been against piracy, however he was sued for that! He has hired the best lawyers firm online, and they actually proved that the IP address is not the best proof for that. Last edited by RedBaron58 on 2021-08-17 23:00:15 | |
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| SuperbikemikePosted at 2021-04-17 16:23:43(191Wks ago) Report Permalink URL | ||
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| no it is not.... a ip is not proof of anything ,,,,, i cant tell you how many ips in my neighborhood i hook to all of them, and i use them for sketchy stuff  so actually trying to say your ip is proof is not a answer nor proof of anything,, just ask any college kid how he hooks up he'll give ya the same answer... to anything he can ....  Last edited by Superbikemike on 2021-04-17 16:24:13 | |
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