If a car careens through a crowd of people and subsequently kills someone, are we satisfied enough to prosecute the owner of the vehicle or would we want the driver to stand trial? Well I hate to say it, but under the current version of the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act we're saying it's okay to just prosecute the owner of the vehicle and not worry about who was actually driving.
In its simplest terms, as far as I understand it, a copyright holder sees an IP address sifting through an illegal file sharing website and then requests account details and contact information from the appropriate internet provider (ISP). Now suddenly the account holder themselves is responsible and guilty until they prove themselves innocent, and thats IF they have the means to. There are so many scenarios where this just seems ridiculous now. Remember each household has only one IP address to the outside world yet there could be multiple internet connected devices inside that house at any given time. So are we going after the vehicle owner here, or the driver?
Luckily courts around the world are waking up to the glaring fact that an IP address is merely the owner and not necessarily the user. This great 3News article outlines this quite well. I suggest you click through and read more in depth into the international rulings, it's good to see some common sense coming out of the justice system.
So, while it's good to jot down the licence plate of that car you just saw speed away from the scene of a bank robbery, it's also a lot better if you can get a clear description of the driver.
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