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Thread: Illegal Downloading Liability

  1. #1
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    Exclamation Illegal Downloading Liability

    Hey all,

    I dont know if im in the right place to ask this.

    I am in a shared house at the moment and the internet is in my name. I do not download anything illegally but i know that some of the people i share the house with might.

    I just wanted to know who is legally liable if one of my house mates downloads and gets caught.

    Thanks,
    Ish

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    Re: Illegal Downloading Liability

    Top and bottom of it is that the account is in your name and therefore it is down to you to monitor who is using the connection and making sure there is no illegal activity. You will be the one that can get in trouble for it, there is also the possibility that all the PC's in your house could end up getting siezed if the police raided your house.

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    Re: Illegal Downloading Liability

    I think if you all use different PC's then you could easily prove you didn't download the data. Saying that you would probably still be dragged to court to prove it though.

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    Question Re: Illegal Downloading Liability

    thanks for your replies. The problem is that i cannot stop anyone from downloading illegally. I have told them to stop but they wont listen...what else can i do?

    thanks,
    Ish

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    Re: Illegal Downloading Liability

    Well, if the account is in your name, one option is to cancel it. Another is to lock them out via the router, perhaps by specifying that only certain IPs are accepted. If it's wireless, change the encryption passwords and lock them out.

    However, presumably, you want a contribution to the cost, and don't want a blazing row. That make it difficult to take a firm stance and lock therm out.

    There's good news and bad news. The good news is that in most situations, downloading illegal content is a matter of civil dispute between you and the copyright owner, so the police won't get involved. If your house mates are uploading as well, though, be more worried. That is a much greater risk of getting tracked and either sued or your internet connection cancelled. But even then, the risk is pretty small. And, of course, for any criminal actions, you aren't, at least in theory, liable for what your house mates do. The bad news is that in practice, if the evidence points at you, the fact that it wasn't you might not help.

    Then there's the really bad news. If your house mates won't respect the fact that the account is in your name, what else might they be up to? God help you if one of them is downloading child porn, schematics for bombs or hacking GCHQ or the CIA. If they're doing any of a fairly lengthy list of naughty things like that, that might get your door kicked down in the early hours, and the whole lot of you dropped in the poop. Of course, when nothing is found on your computer, you're in the clear ... but that could take weeks or months.

    What it comes down to for me is .... if you can't trust them and they refuse to stop putting you at risk over one thing, why should you trust them over something else? If it were me with house mates I couldn't trust, I'd rather either pay for my own connection and let them make their own arrangements, or I'd go without.

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    Re: Illegal Downloading Liability

    Quote Originally Posted by ish123 View Post
    thanks for your replies. The problem is that i cannot stop anyone from downloading illegally. I have told them to stop but they wont listen...what else can i do?

    thanks,
    Ish
    Its quite simple. Cancel the subscription to the internet.
    Insert signature here.


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    Re: Illegal Downloading Liability

    Get their names on the account. I hope you do this with all your other bills; thi sshould be as easy as adding people to utillity bills?

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    Re: Illegal Downloading Liability

    m0n0wall ftw.
    throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)

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    Re: Illegal Downloading Liability

    Quote Originally Posted by TheAnimus View Post
    m0n0wall ftw.
    What's that?

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    Re: Illegal Downloading Liability

    http://m0n0.ch/
    hardware firewall solution, use an old ITX board or something.

    Its great for QoS so that downloading dosen't effect gaming lag, but also you can restrict people very easily, with great out of the box functionality, and none of that normal 'unix' feeling where you've finally got it working, and realise that if you'd worked those 8 hours you could of just bought a solution and had money left over for beer.

    So you can restrict them as to what they can upload/download, protect your network, and garrenete performance.
    throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)

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    bsodmike (23-09-2009)

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    Re: Illegal Downloading Liability

    Block the known p2p port ranges in your router if thats what they are using... Or just sit down and hve a conversation with your housemates about it and explain the implications of what they are doing and how its wrecks the internet for you all the time!

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    Re: Illegal Downloading Liability

    Quote Originally Posted by TheAnimus View Post
    none of that normal 'unix' feeling where you've finally got it working, and realise that if you'd worked those 8 hours you could of just bought a solution
    Lol .. QFT quote of the week

    I have to say though, any restricting of use will just make you unpopular,
    best just to get someone else to put their name on the bill.

  14. Received thanks from:

    bsodmike (23-09-2009)

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    Re: Illegal Downloading Liability

    Quote Originally Posted by TheAnimus View Post
    ... none of that normal 'unix' feeling where you've finally got it working, and realise that if you'd worked those 8 hours you could of just bought a solution and had money left over for beer.
    Hahaha...oh wait, *look in mirror* On a more serious note, you can also consider Smoothwall and see which one you prefer.

    It would be better to take digit's suggestion and flip it on its head, i.e. simply only 'allow' access to port 80/HTTP, Skype, IM services, possibly POP3/SMTP/IMAP (if anyone still uses those) and close off everything else.
    Last edited by bsodmike; 23-09-2009 at 10:16 AM.

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    Re: Illegal Downloading Liability

    Think of a plausible reason to cancel the connection - perhaps you found a better deal at a different supplier etc. Then get one of your freeloader mates to sign up for it!

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    Re: Illegal Downloading Liability

    Just move ISPs to something like talktalk and that would be more then enough to deter them from downloading anything!

  18. #16
    Mike Fishcake
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    Re: Illegal Downloading Liability

    Get someone to mock up a letter using a letter head from your ISP saying that there have been reports from copyright holders that their material is being seeded from your router. Show to your housemates.

    Blackmail material

    If you know what they've been downloading, you can mention it on the letter.

    I know this plan isn't without it's flaws, but it's probably worth it to see the look on their faces.

    (Make sure whoever types it is good on "legal speak". It may horribly backfire if you put spelling or grammar mistakes in.)

  19. Received thanks from:

    bsodmike (23-09-2009),Lee H (23-09-2009)

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