Can we be soon looking at all the problems and controversy associated with the Pirate Bay fiasco over in Finland here in the States? With the new law going into effect here to help protect against filesharing on P2P sites like bit torrent, ISPs will be monitoring and sending out warning letters letting offenders know that they should stop sharing files or face penalties for infringement. On the face of this I am for this new plan as I find this much preferable to the copyright troll letters that automatically assume guilt and demand extortionate amounts of money. I am not for infringing upon or stealing anyone’s intellectual property rights, and these letters will also include instructions on how to protect yourself if you are the victim of someone using your wireless connection by including instructions on how to secure your router so it is not an open network as well as other things you can do to protect yourself. Again, on the face of it we need to start somewhere in this sounds like a good plan as at this stage the ISPs will not be sharing IP addresses of possible offenders with any trolls but there is as with anything a lot of room for in danger of abuse like the following example.
I found a link to this article from Torrent Freak over on the Plagiarism Today’s site which shows what can happen when this goes too far. The Finnish anti-piracy group CIAPC sent a man letter advising that his IP address was traced back to having downloaded copyrighted material and advised him to pay a settlement of €600 sign a confidentiality statement and put this matter behind him or face escalation. He chose not to respond to this and woke up to find police knocking on his door with a search warrant, the police then traced the offense to a nine-year-old girl (the man’s daughter )who liked pop music and didn’t have enough money in her piggy bank. She tried Google and then Pirate Bay site but apparently could not get a download that worked properly and talk to her dad who took her out the next day and bought her the music. The man explained to the police that the music was purchased but they did not care and confiscated her Winnie the Pooh laptop and lectured the father and the little girl saying
“It would have been easier for all concerned if you had paid the compensation.”
The article goes on making some good points by the father stating:
“We have not done anything wrong with my daughter. If adults do not always know how to use a computer and the web, how can you assume that children or the elderly – or a 9-year-old girl – knows what they are doing at any given time online?”
You may read the entire article here:
http://torrentfreak.com/police-raid-9-year-old-pirate-bay-girl-confiscate-winnie-the-pooh-laptop-121122/
Topic: Finnish Police Raid Home and Confiscate Winnie The Pooh Laptop – Are We Next? (Read 12569 times)