Quote:
Originally Posted by hrosvit
To a certain extent, true. If it were a criminal case, and the actor said, "my wireless is open" (and they always do), I would seize his computer and examine it. If he's telling the truth, I won't find the offending files. In that case, I cannot file charges. If he's lying, I'm probably going to find something. Maybe not, though; maybe he's really good. In that case, he gets away with it.
Let me pose another scenario (and this is one I've encountered many times). Three grown deadbeat adult children live with Mom, who is elderly, unfamiliar with technology and, quite frankly, a little senile. Who's name do you think all the utilities (including the internet) are in? So 85 year old mom is now responsible?
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That's the crux of the issue, isn't it? It seems to boil down to a choice of two options: making people responsible for the use of the equipment they own, or making it effectively impossible to prosecute any pirate who has two brain-cells to rub together. I don't believe anyone is going to do a full forensic examination of a computer that someone thinks may have been used to illegally download a $10 movie onto; it wouldn't be a feasible use of resources for anyone. So we let the pirates get away with it.