Comment Re:No default judgment, but probably not over (Score 1) 197
I find it interesting that points 12 and 13 are, from at least a technical standpoint, entirely inaccurate.
From point 12: Two computers cannot effectively function if they are connected to the Internet with the same IP address at the same time
As everyone here is likely aware, NAT accomplishes this on a daily basis and is the sole reason we have not exhausted the available range of IP addresses in the current 32-bit address space. Perhaps a more valid statement would be: two computers, both assigned routable IP addresses and both directly-connected to the Internet, would not effectively function.
In practice, assuming each computer was directly connected to the Internet via a different upstream provider, or if the same provider, to routers that were members of different broadcast domains, one of those computers would not function past its upstream router (assuming the router was properly configured). The other should continue to function as usual (which I suppose still makes their case, it just does so in a factual way).
From point 13: The Defendant was identified as the individual responsible for that IP address at that date and time.
Unless you can tie the defendant to a specific MAC address (which even these days isn't really proof since there are utilities available to change those) you have not identified an individual; you have identified an access point. It's no different than say, parking your car in the parking lot of a restaurant you own, that happens to be beside a bank; then one day having some robbers park in your parking lot while they rob the bank. Since it was your parking lot they parked in while they robbed the bank, and your car also parks in that parking lot, by that logic you are now involved since both your car and their car came out of the same lot (keeping in mind that all this time the lot was under your control).
What if you have one of those toll-gates to your parking lot that prevents people from just driving in & out? Now that the robbers have to pass by your security, does that mean you've now aided and abetted the robbers if you let them into your lot, even though you had no idea they were going to rob the bank?
The whole RIAA process is just goofy... arrogant business people using technically incompetent arguments to bring money-losing lawsuits against improper parties to defend a long-dead business model.
God help us if they represented whip-makers when the car was introduced...