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German Court: ISPs Must Hand Over File Sharer Info
itwbennett writes "The German Federal Court of Justice has ruled that ISPs have to turn over to rights-holders the names and addresses of illegal file sharers, but only 'if a judge rules that the file sharer indeed infringed on copyright,' said the court's spokeswoman, Dietlind Weinland. The ruling overturns two previous rulings by regional courts and is significant because the violation doesn't have to happen on a commercial scale, but applies whenever 'it is possible to know who was using an IP address at the time of the infringement,' the court said."
Eventually if these ever get to court...
The copyright holders will have to have some real evidence. Not just a list of IP addresses and a file name. A file name is NOT a copyright violation. I don't know how they can just pull a list from a tracker and legally verify you were actually distributing their copyrighted works. Wouldn't they have to actually download the file from you and you only and provide a complete trail of custody to verify the file is what they are saying it is? ride_the_lightning.mp3 that is 3.75MB in size means nothing. I know for convenience they want to carpet bomb file sharers in masse but it really has to be done correctly. No assumptions by them at all. Throw in some twists like copyright holders purposefully putting up fake mp3 files to water down the pool and the whole thing is a mess.