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Judge Calls Malibu Media "Troll", Denies Subpoena
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: In what could be the beginning of the end of the Malibu Media litigation wave involving alleged BitTorrent downloads of porn films, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in Manhattan federal court has denied Malibu Media's request for a subpoena to get the subscriber's name and address from his or her internet service provider. In his 11-page decision (PDF), Judge Hellerstein discussed "copyright trolls" and noted that (a) it is not clear that Malibu Media's porn products are entitled to copyright protection, (b) discussed some of its questionable litigation practices, (c) Malibu's "investigation" leads at best to an IP address rather than to an individual infringer, (d) there is a major risk of misidentification, (e) Malibu has no evidence that the individual John Doe committed any act of infringement, and (f) Malibu's claim that there is no other practical way for it to target infringement was not supported by adequate evidence.
Yes, but Comcast knows which subscriber's credentials were used to connect and each device gets its own IP address. I'm sure Comcast keeps track of this (as well as the MAC address of the connecting device).
Just because someones credentials were used, still doesn't prove it was that person. Come on... I can fire up a copy of wireshark or airsnort or firesheep and be on most wireless hotspots in a few minutes without ever having to provide my information. Additionally, in a household .. the account holders credentials are used be everyone in the household .. and worse by all the friends that come by and need access.
There are probably 100 different ways to be on a hotspot and not be the registered owner of the hotspot or a registered guest. So unless the country mandates IPv6 and every one gets their own block at birth .. and IP address will never guarantee the person using it.