Innocent File-Sharers Could Appear Guilty?

daveo0331 writes " New Scientist has an article about what could be a promising defense strategy for people targeted by the RIAA. Basically, anyone on the Gnutella network can frame other users by making it look like someone is hosting RIAA music, even though they're not. Therefore, the RIAA's "evidence" against file sharers is theoretically unreliable and wouldn't stand as good a chance of holding up in court. No mention of whether this has anything to do with the RIAA's eagerness to settle the lawsuits out of court. The article is based on a research paper (PDF link, HTML version) posted anonymously to a web hosting service in Australia."

Comments

Re:Where is the principal in all this ?

[gfody]

I don't understand all the "can't afford to fight the case" statements. Since when does it cost money to have your ass hauled into court? Is it the price of the defense attorney alone? Do you really NEED a lawyer, what about pleading your case yourself.. "no I wasn't sharing mp3s and here's proof ______".
It seems like if someone can build a strong case against you then yea it might cost a lot of money for a team of law monkeys to defend against it.. but for these stinky IP address shady kazaa bs RIAA cases is it really necessary?