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.
If people are stupid enough to let their Wi-Fi connection go unsecured than they should have to face the consequences when they get in trouble.
It won’t be long before bittorrent sites start spoofing IP addresses or putting false ones in the mix to send the anti-piracy people in circles.
They already are.
The hilarious thing about this particular case is that the old couple don’t even have WiFi. The Lawyers have backed down because of the shoddy standard of evidence gathering.