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An IP Address Does Not Point To a Person, Judge Rules

Posted by Soulskill on from the your-computer-is-broadcasting-a-person dept.

AffidavitDonda writes with this excerpt from Torrentfreak: "A possible landmark ruling in one of the mass-BitTorrent lawsuits in the US may spell the end of the 'pay-up-or-else-schemes' that have targeted over 100,000 Internet users in the last year. District Court Judge Harold Baker has denied a copyright holder the right to subpoena the ISPs of alleged copyright infringers, because an IP-address does not equal a person. Among other things, Judge Baker cited a recent child porn case where the US authorities raided the wrong people, because the real offenders were piggybacking on their Wi-Fi connections. Using this example, the judge claims that several of the defendants in VPR's case may have nothing to do with the alleged offense either. ... Baker concludes by saying that his Court is not supporting a 'fishing expedition' for subscribers' details if there is no evidence that it has jurisdiction over the defendants."

6 of 293 comments (clear)

  1. Wow. by Moryath · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Pity this'll never survive through the appellate courts, since the MafiAA bought off all the appellate judges long ago.

  2. 1 Hurdle Down, A Few More to Go by Huntr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Obviously, this won't be settled until it reaches the Supreme Court, but it's a vital 1st step. Go Freedom!

  3. What parallel universe have I fallen into... by The+Optimizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...where Judges are applying an understanding of the technical issues, common sense, and considering the situation of ordinary citizens?

    1. Re:What parallel universe have I fallen into... by H0p313ss · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ...where Judges are applying an understanding of the technical issues, common sense, and considering the situation of ordinary citizens?

      The same world where bin Ladin is dead, democracy is sweeping the middle east like a sandstorm, Duke Nukem Forever will ship in June and the NDP are the official opposition in Canada.

      2011 is pretty interesting so far.

      --
      XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
  4. Re:So slashdotters by Moryath · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wait, you mean the police might have to do actual police work rather than relying on shoddy "evidence" that doesn't point to the right place, raiding innocent people's houses, trampling all over civil liberties...

    Gee. I must be insane to think we could agree that the cops should be required to do their due diligence...

  5. Re:er this is a bit silly by Moryath · · Score: 5, Informative

    Surely the police raided the right people, the owners of the wireless device that facilitated the downloading

    Actually, it turned out the downloader had been downloading using half a dozen access points, and they eventually caught him by tracing back his login from where he had downloaded at a university through the U's secured wireless.

    So the raid was not just worthless, it was a waste of time and involved the needless trampling and horrific treatment of innocent people.

    In other words, whoever collected the "evidence" and authorized the raid were being a couple of lazy fuckasses, which we should never allow law enforcement to be, and which is why it's so important to enshrine into precedent that an IP address IS NOT A PERSON and should not be enough to authorize a raid.