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Court Rules on Merits of IP Address Identification in Open WiFi Case:
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was presented with a case about open WiFi and the responsibility of the owner of the network when someone commits copyright infringement on the IP address. Thomas Gonzalez was sued by the makers of the Adam Sandler movie, The Cobbler. He had won his initial day in court, but the copyright owners appealed the decision. In the new ruling (pdf), Judge Margaret McKeown had this to say, "In this copyright action, we consider whether a bare allegation that a defendant is the registered subscriber of an Internet Protocol ('IP') address associated with infringing activity is sufficient to state a claim for direct or contributory infringement." She then states, "We conclude that it is not."
From the ruling:
The district court properly dismissed Cobbler Nevada's claims. The direct infringement claim fails because Gonzales's status as the registered subscriber of an infringing IP address, standing alone, does not create a reasonable inference that he is also the infringer. Because multiple devices and individuals may be able to connect via an IP address, simply identifying the IP subscriber solves only part of the puzzle. A plaintiff must allege something more to create a reasonable inference that a subscriber is also an infringer. Nor can Cobbler Nevada succeed on a contributory infringement theory because, without allegations of intentional encouragement or inducement of infringement, an individual's failure to take affirmative steps to police his internet connection is insufficient to state a claim.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by archfeld on Friday August 31 2018, @08:35PM (2 children)
I question how is anyone other than the copyright owner to know whether posting or downloading something is a violation, or merely the 'legal' owner of something posting or downloading it ? I can see the idea that the owner of the copyright notifies a network owner/operator and has a right to expect them to act in a reasonable time frame to remedy the situation but beyond that it is unreasonable to expect a company or private individual to keep track of who owns what. Not even touching on the fact that a dynamic IP is hardly a unique finger print identification method.
My home WIFI is open and my neighbors or strangers often partake. It is one of the joys of a Gbps connection. If I encounter issue I just boot whomever I don't recognize off. I assign my known devices IP addresses based on MAC addresses, and make a dozen or so other IP's available for use. One of my neighbors mows my lawn in exchange for access, another drops peaches and pomegranates on my porch, and yet another comes by with beers and a joint in the evenings. All in all it works out nicely in my opinion. The key is assuring each device on the network is locked down tight at the source and not to depend on the router as a firewall.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @02:09PM (1 child)
you commie yer stealin from a isp
ya neighburs shuld pay theuir own way
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Sunday September 02 2018, @04:09PM
How do you figure that ? There is no limit on the number of devices I can have on my connection. I've only had one warning, a couple of years ago My brother and I both DL'd an online game, Rifts at the same time and we got a warning but no action was taken, nor have I ever been approached by anyone or contacted by the ISP since. You're just jealous that no one likes you enough to share...
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge