A US federal judge in Washington wrote that a suspected internet pirate should not be prosecuted solely because his computer\u2019s IP address was identified by a film studio. The landmark opinion may tip the fortunes of defendants in similar situations.<\/p>\n
The Hollywood executives behind the movie \u2018Elf Man\u2019 filed a lawsuit against hundreds of people, alleging that they were guilty of copyright infringement because their internet protocol (IP) address was found to have illegally downloaded the film. An IP address can be likened to a computer\u2019s online fingerprint; each is unique to the machine it originates from.<\/p>\n
Copyright holders seeking to take offenders to court often put fake movie files online, record the hundreds or thousands of IP addresses that download it, and then provide that information to the courts in an attempt to identify and sue hapless users on the other side of the screen.<\/p>\n
The studio argued that \u201cthe defendants either (a) downloaded the pirated film themselves, or (b) permitted, facilitated, or promoted the use of their Internet connections by others to download the film,\u201d according to TorrentFreak.<\/p>\n
Washington District Judge Robert Lasnik said this week that the rationale is insufficient, in part because it begins with the assumption of guilt. Ruling on a motion to dismiss the claim, Lasnik sided with the defendants because the conditions described in complaint section b were overly vague.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The movie studio] has actually alleged no more than the named defendants purchased Internet access and failed to ensure that others did not use that access to download copyrighted material,\u201d the judge wrote.<\/p>\n
Lasnik also said that there was no proof that the person who could wind up facing a lawsuit was in fact the person who chose to download the copy of \u2018Elf Man.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cSimply identifying the account holder associated with an IP address tells us very little about who actually downloaded \u2018Elf Man\u2019 using that IP address,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWhile it is possibly that the subscriber is the one who participated in the BitTorrent swarm, it is also possible that a family member, guest, or freeloader engaged in the infringing conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n