Nobody at all saw this coming, right...?

[unixronin]

"Grandma endures wrongful ISP piracy suspension."

Qwest had suspended the service of 53-year-old painter accused by Hollywood of illegal file sharing.  The problem was she didn't do it.

Hands up anyone who's surprised.

...Anyone?

...Bueller?

Comments

[ithildae]

Our modern economy and work structures practically require internet access. Why is it possible to permit such a hardship on anyone on the basis of an accusation? No judge, no evidence, no chance to dispute, not even arbitration. I am thinking of the South African practice of accusing someone of being black in order to take their property. It worked very well for generations. How is this different than terrorism? Economic rather than physical?

[luxobscura.livejournal.com]

It's such a basic premise that I guess I can understand why corporate lawyers don't get it. An ISP or computer is like a gun. You can forensically prove the bullet was fired from a specific gun, but that alone does not put the gun's registered owners finger on the trigger. It just proves the bullet came from the gun. It doesn't prove who the Actor was.

Same thing with data packets from an ISP, or even a specific computer.