Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Not under UK law. Here, if you are the registered keeper of a vehicle, you have a legal responsibility to know who is driving it at all times. Hence, if an offence is committed by that vehicle, you are legally required to disclose the identity of the driver at that time. If you are unable to do so (or refuse to do so) you'll face prosecution as if you were the driver.
That's why I say that I think that the same principle can be (and indeed, IS, in the UK) extended to IP connections, because there is a long-established legal precedent for doing so.
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Not if you go to court. They have to prove who was driving.
I had a quick google and found the following links which have a bit more info
http://www.pepipoo.com/NIP.htm
http://www.abd.org.uk/defence.htm
In particular the second one has a quote from a magistrate.
Now bear in mind, there's a separate offence for not provding details of the real driver if it wasn't you. That's not relevant to this discussion though as we're assuming you don't know who used your IP to download infringing material (and of course it wasn't you).
As far as I can tell though, with speeding and parking fines they have to show you were the driver (or have you admit to it). Usually with speed cameras that's just a matter of looking at the photo, chances are if it's your car and the photo looks close enough to you, the burden may shift to you then proving it wasn't you (IANAL so don't know if that's true). With the IP question this would imo be akin to your computer been searched and the movie/book/whatever is found on it, now it's up to you to prove you didn't download it.