Court Says File Sharers Have No Right To Anonymity... Mostly
from the with-a-little-exception dept
Thomas O'Toole alerts us to a recent ruling highlighting the rather unsurprising fact that file sharers can't hide behind a First Amendment anonymity claim to prevent an ISP from handing over their info. While I'm a big supporter of US courts properly recognizing that the First Amendment protects sites from being compelled to reveal anonymous commenters, this lawsuit definitely seemed like a huge stretch. However, O'Toole does note that this appeals court ruling did make one important correction to the lower court's magistrate judge, who had claimed that simply by putting files on a file sharing site, users had given up anonymity:Lastly, as precedents have advised us, the Doe Defendants have a minimal expectation of privacy, especially when they allegedly engaged in P2P network sharing. Conceptually, the notion of allowing others to have access to one's database by virtue of the Internet in order to pluck from a computer information and data that the computer owner or user wishes to share renders void any pretext of privacy.But that makes little sense, of course. Thankfully, the appeals court pointed that out:
The privacy claimed here is not for the information that the computer owner or user wishes to share but rather for his or her identity.Indeed. Sharing data doesn't mean you are sharing your identity. Of course, that fine point didn't matter in the larger context of the ruling, but it's still a good point to raise.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: anonymity, copyright, file sharing
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Court Says File Sharers Have No Rights
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The government pretends that it wants to act in the public interest with respect to the Internet but if it were really concerned with the public interest it would fix all the broken laws that exist outside the Internet. It wouldn't grant monopolies on cablecos/telcos/internetco infrastructure and monopolies on who can build new infrastructure and it wouldn't grant monopolies on both the cableco infrastructure and public airwaves and on the content (ie: copy restrictions, or more inaccurately known as copyright laws) distributed through those communication mediums. Not only does the government grant a monopoly on the information distribution platforms outside the Internet but it also grants a monopoly on the content provided on those platforms. The government clearly has no intention of serving the public good, if it did it would first seek to fix all the broken laws already in existence (ie: copy restriction length) before seeking to create new laws.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Lobbyists
I agree Corps do need to by able to Lobby, but they should not be able to influence the creation of ANY LAWS that reduce the current protections and rights of actual people.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I share a file, not a folder, not my name...
To say I have no privacy rights because I choose to help the Linux community by seeding distros is pure BS.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Courts ruled right
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
haha only maters in the USA
P.S. @7 fuck lawyers , fuck judges fuck you, fuck you cat.
BOMB the BOATS and feed the fucking flesh to the fish
[ link to this | view in chronology ]