wraggster
October 30th, 2008, 20:35
A Scottish couple has been falsely accused of illegally downloading a video game, Race07 calling into question the wisdom of filing lawsuits based merely on IP addresses.
The couple, Gill and Ken Murdoch, are 54 and 66-years-old and claim to have never so much as played a video game in their lives, let alone illegally downloaded one. The lawyers responsible for the law suit, Davenport Lyons, didn’t explain how the Murdoch’s IP address crossed their radar. Atari dropped the case before it made its way through the courts.
All of this goes to show just how dumb it is to automatically assume that the “owner” of flagged IP addresses is responsible for evildoing. Who’s to say some dumb kid isn’t using your Wi-Fi connection to download the latest game, then you get fingered for the deed? Things fall apart.
http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/10/30/surprised-scottish-couple-falsely-accused-of-downloading-atari-game/
The couple, Gill and Ken Murdoch, are 54 and 66-years-old and claim to have never so much as played a video game in their lives, let alone illegally downloaded one. The lawyers responsible for the law suit, Davenport Lyons, didn’t explain how the Murdoch’s IP address crossed their radar. Atari dropped the case before it made its way through the courts.
All of this goes to show just how dumb it is to automatically assume that the “owner” of flagged IP addresses is responsible for evildoing. Who’s to say some dumb kid isn’t using your Wi-Fi connection to download the latest game, then you get fingered for the deed? Things fall apart.
http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/10/30/surprised-scottish-couple-falsely-accused-of-downloading-atari-game/