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You think they are gonna prosecute a few hundred thousand people? Seems unlikely...

by wilfra 14y ago

nitrogen 14y ago
There's lots of room for "innovation" in the legal arena. Something like the digital equivalent of an automated speed camera? Adjustment on your taxes based on how many times your IP address shows up on public trackers? Rejected security clearances?
- jeltz 14y ago
  Well, ex post facto laws are generally frowned upon so it is not as risky as you make it sound. And in Europe there is also EU privacy laws you need to take into account. It is unlikely a new kind of law will suddenly appear without warning.
  - digitalengineer 14y ago
    Yes those EU privacy laws are really great: "German police clearly state that they are monitoring Skype, Google Mail, MSN Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Facebook chat ..." "Altogether more than a billion Euro was spent on private services by German police and other public authorities in the realm of the ministry of home affairs in the years 2002 – 2012". http://annalist.noblogs.org/post/2012/10/03/german-police-monitors-skype-googlemail-and-facebook-chat/ http://annalist.noblogs.org/post/2012/10/03/german-police-mo...
- digitalengineer 14y ago
  Quit please. With all the talent here, someone might begin a startup doing just that. (Or a fake one, ripping off the RIAA when they wish to invest).
agentgt 14y ago
I can tell you they will definitely try to prosecute you. I own rental property and I let one of my tenets use the shared temporary Internet access (yes some would say that was stupid) but to me Internet is like water so I felt it was alright. The annoying thing is that its not the studio company that is suing you its the IT company that is scraping your IP address. They then according to my lawyer do a geo-location lookup and based on your location determine if your worthwhile suing. If your in affluent area your a target because they are confident you will settle. They reason people settle is that its almost impossible to fight the case with out revealing your identity. And I will tell you do not want to do that because they then resell that information because most of these IT scraping companies are offshore. I heard from one lawyer when its all said in done they have done the risk analysis (counter-suing, cases dropped, etc) and they on predict on average making about $50 or more a case.
- sampsonjs 14y ago
  EDIT: Are you referring to something like this: "http://fightcopyrighttrolls.com/2012/09/06/copyright-defenders-trolling-for-copyright-trolls/ http://fightcopyrighttrolls.com/2012/09/06/copyright-defende...? Could you clarify more? An offshore IT company that does not own any copyright is suing bittorrenters? On what basis exactly? And they're scraping IPs and are allowed to bring that up in court?
htmltablesrules 14y ago
It's like a reverse lottery. Only a handful will "win" a legal case and will get utterly crushed in the process.
- morsch 14y ago
  Sounds like an ideal setup for a legal insurance.
- wilfra 14y ago
  Reverse lottery is a good way to look at it. And for the same reason I don't play the lottery I'm not worried about this. 1/infinity are odds I'm confident I will never hit.

You think they are gonna prosecute a few hundred thousand people? Seems unlikely...

by wilfra 14y ago

You think they are gonna prosecute a few hundred thousand people? Seems unlikely...

There's lots of room for "innovation" in the legal arena. Something like the digital equivalent of an automated speed camera? Adjustment on your taxes based on how many times your IP address shows up on public trackers? Rejected security clearances?

jeltz 14y ago
Well, ex post facto laws are generally frowned upon so it is not as risky as you make it sound. And in Europe there is also EU privacy laws you need to take into account. It is unlikely a new kind of law will suddenly appear without warning.
- digitalengineer 14y ago
  Yes those EU privacy laws are really great: "German police clearly state that they are monitoring Skype, Google Mail, MSN Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Facebook chat ..." "Altogether more than a billion Euro was spent on private services by German police and other public authorities in the realm of the ministry of home affairs in the years 2002 – 2012". http://annalist.noblogs.org/post/2012/10/03/german-police-monitors-skype-googlemail-and-facebook-chat/ http://annalist.noblogs.org/post/2012/10/03/german-police-mo...
digitalengineer 14y ago
Quit please. With all the talent here, someone might begin a startup doing just that. (Or a fake one, ripping off the RIAA when they wish to invest).

agentgt 14y ago

I can tell you they will definitely try to prosecute you. I own rental property and I let one of my tenets use the shared temporary Internet access (yes some would say that was stupid) but to me Internet is like water so I felt it was alright. The annoying thing is that its not the studio company that is suing you its the IT company that is scraping your IP address. They then according to my lawyer do a geo-location lookup and based on your location determine if your worthwhile suing. If your in affluent area your a target because they are confident you will settle. They reason people settle is that its almost impossible to fight the case with out revealing your identity. And I will tell you do not want to do that because they then resell that information because most of these IT scraping companies are offshore. I heard from one lawyer when its all said in done they have done the risk analysis (counter-suing, cases dropped, etc) and they on predict on average making about $50 or more a case.

sampsonjs 14y ago
EDIT: Are you referring to something like this: "http://fightcopyrighttrolls.com/2012/09/06/copyright-defenders-trolling-for-copyright-trolls/ http://fightcopyrighttrolls.com/2012/09/06/copyright-defende...? Could you clarify more? An offshore IT company that does not own any copyright is suing bittorrenters? On what basis exactly? And they're scraping IPs and are allowed to bring that up in court?

htmltablesrules 14y ago

It's like a reverse lottery. Only a handful will "win" a legal case and will get utterly crushed in the process.

morsch 14y ago
Sounds like an ideal setup for a legal insurance.
wilfra 14y ago
Reverse lottery is a good way to look at it. And for the same reason I don't play the lottery I'm not worried about this. 1/infinity are odds I'm confident I will never hit.