Friend "going to be sued" for downloading?

fini said:
Someone mentioned the 'my wifi network is open' trick - and tbh there is no counter-defence to this at the moment. There is an exception under s28(A) CDPA for those that are a mere conduit (ie an ISP or if you're running a wireless network and you don't know who was using it). There is near nothing they can do to prove this wasn't the case.
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So anyone could say that their wireless network was unsecure at the date of download and get away with it?
 
The "wireless excuse" would probably get you off. But a lot of people (you would be surprised), get fooled into owning up to their crimes, believing that in some way the authorities will go easy on them if they tell the truth, or that the prosecutors are in possession of some damning evidence. I've got news for you - if you tell the truth, you are making the prosecutors' job/case very easy.

Have you ever heard the caution: "...anything you do say can and will be used in evidence against you..." That statement is so clear, yet people divulge information that lands them right in it. If you ever get arrested or are questioned regarding an incident and you have the right to stay silent, exercise that right or just say, "I dont know whats going on..." This strategy will then allow you to think of a suitable excuse/alibi that can end up saving your backside. Anything you do say will almost certainly be used against you and will not be used 'for' you. This applies 100% if you are arrested for murder (as an extreme example).

Similarly, if you get a letter through your door saying that you downloaded Steps' Greatest Hits and that you must pay £700, stay quiet and let them do most of the talking and proving. If you can, you might also want to destroy any evidence that might be used against you. Or put it in a place where nobody will ever find it, except for you.
 
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geeza said:
Personally I have never done it.

My dad carried on getting junk mail from a company like catalogues, he rang them and told them to stop but they carried on anyway.

We were getting crap all the time from them, until he boxed up all the big chunky catalogues they had sent along with a rather large piece of lead and sent it back to them.

No more junk ever again after that!
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You know they probably made a profit there right?:p
 
All this new talk of people getting caught is getting me worried, haven't touched torrents since.

Bought 4 games in the past 2 weeks, more than I bought in a while.
 
Peter Diffey said:
So anyone could say that their wireless network was unsecure at the date of download and get away with it?
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Well personally I'd be inclined to keep my wireless network unsecure so that you don't get asked 'so why did you leave your wifi unsecure for one day???' and so you don't have to lie under oath. Nice and simple 'I let anyone freely use my internet connection via wifi. I keep no logs of who uses it, but I'd imagine quite a few do given that I'm offering it for free.' is probably the best defence in court at the moment.... that and asking them to explain what a torrent is/ 'how do you do THAT???' when they ask you whether you downloaded the torrent file :p


EDIT: I should probably add that whatever you do if it reaches court you shouldn't lie in court. Nor do I suggest anyone else lies in court. Lying in court is bad and I do not condone it at all, nor should anything I read be understood to imply anything else...nope. Once in court tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but. If ever I write something that seems to imply you should do anything else you've misread what I've written...yep.
 
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fini said:
... that and asking them to explain what a torrent is/ 'how do you do THAT???' when they ask you whether you downloaded the torrent file :p
.
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I would love to be there should the defendent question what a torrent file is. Strictly speaking the prosecutor will have to be able to give a detailed account of what a torrent file is and how it all works, should the defendent insist it be explained to him first, before giving a definitive answer.

Prosecutor: P
Defendent: D

P: Do you download torrent files and consequently the files that they point to?
D: Whats a torrent file?
P: Well, you download it and using a bitorrent program you can download a larger file such as movies, music and games.
D: I'm not sure. I might actually use this, but the name itself doesnt ring bell. Can you give me a more detailed account of how this works please?
(Looks innocently at the prosecutor)...

The Magistrate will now also be looking intensely at the prosecutor waiting for the full detailed explanation. The prosecutor will begin sweating...

fini said:
EDIT: I should probably add that whatever you do if it reaches court you shouldn't lie in court.
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I totally agree. However, you should know that if you do decide to lie, its quite probable that they will never have any proof that you are lying, which will make their case very weak. If you tell the truth, you are almost 100% likely to pay a fine. Of course, like fini said, you shouldnt lie. :)
 
someone mentioned that they can only sue you for loss of money, not profit. But dont forget, with torrents you upload as well as download, so not only did you not pay for the game, your uploading of the game causes the company to loose money from every person you uploaded it to yourself.

Which is why companys like the RIAA and MPAA get away with hundreds of thousands of dollar claims, because they charge money based on not just the loss of income from you, but every person you uploaded, to, and every person down the line, up untill a reasonable point (reasonable being the point where the RIAA think they cant get any more money out of you before the judge just dismisses the charges due to stupid ammount of money being requested).
 
Dist said:
Which is why companys like the RIAA and MPAA get away with hundreds of thousands of dollar claims, ...
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Whats the highest amount of money that has been actually awarded to the RIAA by an Amercian court? My suspicion is that although they attempt to claim huge sums of money, they actually get, very little.
 
sunama said:
With regards to people advising the defendent to buy the game and claim it was scratched so he downloaded it instead to play it as he was desperate to play it: this wouldnt work. The whole case hinges on the fact that they have your IP address. No doubt the date and time will also be recorded. If you buy the game a few weeks/months after downloading it and only after receiving court summons, then it will be obvious that you are lying and attempting to fabricate an excuse.
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And how exactly do they know the date and time on which the game was bought if no credit/debit card is used?
 
Wicksta said:
What about if you have a router that only has WEP security and someone breaks into it?
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Not sure, I just remember reading on BBC News site that people couldn't use the old "it was someone else on my wireless" excuse. I think if people took reasonable precaution on protecting their interweb router it would be ok.
 
What about installing TOR on your machine and simply saying you host a TOR node, and that it wasnt you downloading the stuff, it was someone using TOR who just happened to be using you as an exit node who was doing the downloading.

That way you can say what you were doing is helping support the TOR community and it was impossible to have knowledge of what someone was using your TOR node for.
 
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