R5Rich said:
What bout IRC, surely thats quite hard to track? Plus many channels have disclaimers as well saying they accept no responsibility does that actually hold up in courts?
IRC servers log your IP (with a timestamp) when you connect, your IP address is also available to other users on the same IRC channel. At the worst they just take the server operator to court for the logs, and get the information that way. IRC is
not safe.
Jagen said:
The TOS covers the agreement between you and your service provider, I don't see how it can infer legal liability onto you in this situation.
Consider that in some situations now the court order has been granted the data on who was leasing the IP in question may have been deleted, and the ISP can not identify and end user, FAST are not going to sue the ISP for something that happened on their network but was not under their direct control, how different is that from the end user whose connection was hijacked (either being open or cracked) and used to download software, and whose router does not log sufficient information to allow them to try and identify the machine responsible?
The ISP will give them the data on the account holder, most ISP's are already keeping radius logs for 6 months. And once they are notified of impending legal action they aren't really going to delete that data and stick their own heads in the noose now are they?
I really doubt the 'I didn't know what was happening because I had a unsecured wireless connection' would stand up well in court. As a end user would heave real trouble trying that tack as a defence.
As has already been said, you are responsible for what happens on your network.
I wouldn't be surprised if someone tries it as a defence (and they will need a good solicitor), but we'll see how it pans out over the next few months.
As I said earlier in this thread
lives will be ruined needlessly