70-Year-Old Woman Sued For Allegedly Downloading Adult Entertainment
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There's something fishy about the lawsuit against tens of thousands of Internet users who allegedly downloaded copyrighted files. As the 70-year-old grandmother being sued for downloading pornography told SFGate, "It smacks of extortion."
Over the last few months, law firm Steele Hansmeier PLLC has gone after BitTorrent users with alarming ruthlessness, demanding cash settlements for illegally downloaded files and threatening penalties of up to $150,000 for those who take the case to court. According to tech blog TorrentFreak:
Unlike other lawsuits, the aim of the copyright holders is not to take any of the defendants to court, but to get alleged infringers to pay a substantial cash settlement to make legal action go away.
These settlements range from $3,000-12,000. While the goal of curbing Internet piracy is understandable, this particular case sounds less like lawyers coming up with effective ways to protect copyrighted material and more like lawyers terrifying people into giving them $3,000. Each. Especially when they seem to be completely indifferent to claims of innocence, like the one from the 70-year-old grandmother. The woman refused to pay the settlement fee and explained that she had never even heard of a BitTorrent.
SFGate reports:
To be clear, many – and maybe even most – of those accused in these cases probably downloaded the files. But it's easy to imagine scenarios where some didn't, yet still feel pressured to settle. Like, say, a widow in her 70s who, when asked by a reporter, didn't know whether her wireless Internet service was password protected. She did know, however, that a handful of young men lived next door.
But Steele slammed this defense, accusing owners of unprotected wireless service of wild irresponsibility. According to SFGate:
In an interview, he [Steele] said anyone who fails to secure their Wi-Fi is as responsible for the subsequent crimes or tragedies as a parent who leaves a loaded gun within the reach of a 3-year-old.
That sounds about right. Because a little free hardcore is just as tragic as the accidental death of a child. And a $150,000 fine for one 30-minute video is totally reasonable.
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I agree with the elderly woman. This reeks of extortion. She's a 70-year old woman for pete sake. I'd be willing to bet that she likely knows very little about computers and has her wireless connection setup however her ISP provided it to her. The sad thing is that at this day and age, most ISP's either do not use security, or encourage the use of WEP encryption. In the case of a 70-year old woman, I highly doubt that she's even aware of such risks of improperly securing your wireless connection, or even how to properly do so.
Such a case only leads me to believe that they're trying to extort money from people who obviously in this case, don't know any better and most likely have done no wrong doing. I can understand if they tried to move forward with such charges against a younger individual who has been around computers their whole lives and knows them like the back of their hand, and fully knows how to properly secure a network system, but this just simply isn't the case. Personally, in a case like this, I think it should be the responsibility of the ISP to take the blow for such things because they did not properly provide their customer with proper security settings in which to defend themselves against such actions.
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There's a whole universe between some dickhead keeping a gun in a household where there are kids and it isn't stored in an absolute secure place, and having an unsecured Wi-Fi. Comparing the two by the law firm is utterly abhorent. In other words, re the 70 year old woman… 'she was asking for it'. Oppenents should have used that tact against them and watched the misery being heaped on the shysters.
I've done plenty of unofficial IT work for friends and family who got pcs and the internet with relatively little thought of the dangers/hassle both can have. The risks a completely undersold by all concerned in selling the products, because it does take a certain degree of skill and knowledge to secure yourself.
I think what's missing these days are the 'nanny state' public information films of the 70s to warn people of possible threats, ironically it was announced the UK government dept that produced such retro delights as ... not running around corners, putting rugs on polished floors, and flying kites near electricity pylons, was to close. IMO there is a crying need for more education when it comes to the home technology.
As for these legal actions against downloaders, it is clearly extortion dressed up as legal action, as seen in the case against ACS:Law in the UK
