In this case they clearly are as the IP address was traced to a particular person. I think it’s more accurate to say “IP addresses are not always people” but t

In this case they clearly are as the IP address was traced to a particular person. I think it’s more accurate to say “IP addresses are not always people” but they frequently are identifiers and enough to be useful in these cases. So it’s a bit of an odd statement to make regarding a case where the ip address literally uniquely identified someone. It’s like saying “fingerprints aren’t people” in a case about fingerprints linking to an individual.