German woman with no computer or wireless router ordered to pay fine for piracy

[ríomhaire]

Hardly the most unbiased source but still

http://torrentfreak.com/retired-computerless-woman-fined-for-pirating-hooligan-movie-111222/

Although she previously subscribed to a 2-year Internet and telephone package, six months earlier the woman had sold her computer and didn’t even maintain an email address. After refuting the allegations of the rightsholder, the case went to court.

The Munich District Court handled the case, and heard evidence that not only is the woman computerless, she lives alone and doesn’t possess a wireless router either. How the alleged offense could have been carried out even by a third party remains a mystery.

 

[Krynn72]

Maybe she had a internet capable television and a WIRED router? Sounds plausible enough to me!

 

[PimpinPenguin]

It's a farce how you can get prosecuted on an IP address alone. I myself was hounded by a lawfirm accusing me of piracy. I cancelled my internet service and moved to a new provider, yet a year later i got a notice saying i downloaded some hard code gay porn and that my ISP confirmed it was defiantly me and were asking for £5000 in damages. Yet the ISP to confirm this offence was my old provider and the date i was supposedly to have done this offence i was already with my new provider. I contacted my old ISP and got them to confirm that i did indeed cancel my internet with them and that they were not supplying me with a internet service at the offence and i got my current ISP to confirm i wasn't online as i was on holiday and my wireless router was disconnected. Despite all of this i still got letters saying it had to be me and that there independent expert is positive i was the offender. I took them to court for harassment and sure enough when they saw my evidence they backed off and settled. It's a joke how with just an IP address which they can get from anywhere you can be prosecuted.

 

[ríomhaire]

We're pretty sure it had to be you. We got your IP address with gyromancy.

 

[Krynn72]

yet a year later i got a notice saying i downloaded some hard code gay porn and that my ISP confirmed it was defiantly me and were asking for £5000 in damages.

I mean yeah... the whole guilt by ip address thing is bad, but why the hell would you need to pay damages for downloading gay porn in the first place?

 

[Maestro]

Because some porn producers have the balls to sue when people download their stuff illegally. If there's one industry that is actually hurt in a measurable way by illegal downloads, it's porn; pornography is one of the only thing so embarrassing that almost no one wants it on their card statement.

 

[RakuraiTenjin]

I took them to court for harassment and sure enough when they saw my evidence they backed off and settled.

That's actually cool to hear. I'm sure they made you sign an NDA as part of their settlement, but if you don't mind telling, how much did they settle for?

 

[PimpinPenguin]

I got £8000 in the settlement. Since they threatened that it would cost me over £10,000 if i lost due to their costs, i thought £8000 was quite reasonable since i had to pay for my ISP to give me my own logs and the cost of travelling to court in London which is far from where i live. I think they were very keen to shut me up since their cock up was really bad and it would make them look very bad in future cases.

 

[unozero]

you can buy alota tacos with 8000 pounds...