Quote:
Originally Posted by fredr123
These aren't criminal prosecutions, though. These are civil suits for damages. The standard to meet isn't "beyond a reasonable doubt" but the lower "balance of probabilities". A judge or jury could be convinced it was probably you sitting at the keyboard downloading the infringing materials though the plaintiff is not able to conclusively prove it was you beyond a reasonable doubt.
Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the new legislation aimed at preventing internet crimes and illegal downloading don't incorporate changes to make the person to whom the IP or MAC address is registered liable. Somewhat analogous to getting a registered owner ticket for speeding.
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But then the penalties need to better reflect the uncertainty.
Even in the Thomas case, a subsequent judge drastically lowered the judgment from over $2 million to $54,000. And now the RIAA have offered Thomas a $25,000 settlement if they can drop that judge's decision (which she has denied).
So even though they have Thomas dead to rights, there is still so much wrangling going on that there is a lot of uncertainty.