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explodingdog.com

______ wants to be free

Micah Joel, "early adopter of home wireless" writes about his decision to leave his wireless network open as a preemptive defense strategy against intellectual property infringement lawsuits:
I've already composed my reply in case I receive one of these letters someday. "Dear Comcast, I am so sorry. I had no idea that copyrighted works were being downloaded via my IP address; I have a wireless router at home and it's possible that someone may have been using my connection at the time. I will do my best to secure this notoriously vulnerable technology, but I can make no guarantee that hackers will not exploit my network in the future." [salon]

Sort of an interesting turn -- trusting your neighborhood freeloaders more than your ISP.

Posted on May. 17th, 2004 at 11:32 pm | | Leave a comment | 2 comments |

Comments


ellenlouise

Just to be lawyer like, the problem with this is intention/knowing. He won't be able to claim he did't know. And at the least, this is reckless.

Those count for mens rea (state of mind) required to commit most crimes.
Posted on May. 18th, 2004 06:44 am (UTC) | | Thread | Reply

joshc

four years of latin finally pays off

Under his situation, he would know that someone could possibly use his connection to download copyrighted works, but not that they were actually doing it. I suppose he could be charged with being an accesssory, but then wouldn't internet cafes also be liable?

The actual issue is that he is probably the one doing the downloading, but wants deniability.

p.s. I am glad that you're becoming lawyer-like!
Posted on May. 23rd, 2004 10:29 pm (UTC) | | Parent | Thread | Reply