----- Forwarded message from David Farber <[email protected]> ----- Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2011 08:39:05 -0500 From: David Farber <[email protected]> Subject: [IP] Filesharing prosecutions will face serious problems, says judge (UK) Reply-To: [email protected] To: ip <[email protected]>
Begin forwarded message: From: Brian Randell <[email protected]> Date: February 9, 2011 7:25:50 AM EST To: Dave Farber <[email protected]> Subject: Filesharing prosecutions will face serious problems, says judge (UK) Hi Dave: For IP if you wish, from the (UK) Guardian, 8 Feb. Cheers Brian ---- Filesharing prosecutions will face serious problems, says judge A senior court judge has pointed to severe problems with the way theDigital Economy Act enables copyright owners to prosecute people accused of illegal filesharing. Judge Birss QC said on Tuesday that the process of connecting copyright infringement to a named individual based on their use of aninternet address is fraught with difficulties because internet connections, or IP addresses, are often used by more than one person. In a ruling in the patents county court, Birss asked: "Does the process of identifying an IP address in this way establish that any infringement of copyright has taken place by anyone related to that IP address at all?" He said that the assertion did not hold up: "Even if it is proof of infringement by somebody, merely identifying that an IP address has been involved with infringement [does not make it] clear to me that the person identified must be infringing one way or another. The fact that someone may have infringed does not mean the particular named defendant has done so." The use of "unsecured" internet connections which allow others to "piggyback" on their network leads to more complications, Birss said, adding that these issues are "key" in proving copyright infringement before a court of law. That could create serious problems for copyright owners seeking to enforce their rights under the Digital Economy Act. Although the law allows for a "three strikes" provision in which internet service providers (ISPs) would be required to write to the people who are using an IP address at a time that it is found to be infringing, it has not yet been implemented. Beyond that, copyright owners might be able to take people to court or demand that their internet connection is throttled or constrained. But Birss pointed to a lack of case law to support the idea that someone in charge of an IP address could be judged guilty of infringement carried out through that address. .... Full story at http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/feb/08/filesharing-prosecutions-digital-economy -- School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK EMAIL = [email protected] PHONE = +44 191 222 7923 FAX = +44 191 222 8232 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/brian.randell ----- End forwarded message -----
