Skip to main content

Judge denies subpoenas based on IP addresses

Apple-gavel-antitrust-governement-laws

U.S. Judge Harold Baker has ruled, in the case of VPR Internationale v. Does 1017, that IP addresses don’t necessarily equate to a person guilty of copyright infringement. This may be quite a notable statement in regards to the myriads of piracy lawsuits happening in the United States.

This case was brought forward by VPR Internationale, a Canadian adult film company, who filed a motion for expedited discovery. VPR wanted to serve subpoenas on internet service providers in order to obtain subscribers’ private information.

The Quebec based adult entertainment provider had 1,017 unidentified IP addresses it wished to find physical locations for. An article by TorrentFreak said that the purpose of obtaining the personal information of supposed copyright infringers is to negotiate a quick settlement—a practice which has been compared to extortion.

100,000 users have been targeted by these extortion-like schemes in the last year.

Judge Baker noted, “The embarrassment of public exposure might be too great, the legal system too daunting and expensive, for some to ask whether VPR has competent evidence to prove its case…the imprimatur of this court will not be used to advance a ‘fishing expedition by means of a perversion of the purpose and intent’ of class actions.”

The judge’s logic in denying the adult film company the subpoenas revolved around a recent Buffalo, New York story about an unsecured router. The FBI conducted a raid against a man they thought guilty of distributing child pornography. It turned out that his 25-year-old neighbor was the culprit and had been piggybacking off the innocent homeowner’s wireless connection.

The New York man’s example led the judge to his point that a copyright infringer might just be piggybacking in the same way, and could be a neighbor or even someone parked out on the curb; so the IP address isn’t sufficient evidence to invade their privacy and the court has no jurisdiction over these “Does”.

Editors' Recommendations

Jeff Hughes
Former Digital Trends Contributor
I'm a SF Bay Area-based writer/ninja that loves anything geek, tech, comic, social media or gaming-related.
Best gaming laptop deals: Portable gaming rigs from $600
The Alienware x17 R2 Gaming Laptop viewed from the back.

If you're keen to game while on the move, you need a sweet gaming laptop. Regular laptop deals won't cut it as you need something with a dedicated graphics card and maybe even something with some cool gamer looks too. Gaming laptops aren't cheap but that doesn't mean there aren't some great deals around. If you're looking to invest in a cool new gaming laptop, we've picked out the current best deals around right now. We've considered different budgets as well as different requirements so there's something for everyone below. Take a look and see what appeals to you.
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 -- $600, was $900

Known as one of the best laptop brands for both gaming and business purposes, Lenovo knows how to make a robust system. The Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 packs a lot into its great price tag. It has an AMD Ryzen 5 5600H processor, 8GB of memory and 256GB of SSD storage. More storage space would be nice but if you're fine just having a few games installed at once, this won't slow you down. It also has an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics card which is great for playing the latest games if you don't mind tweaking the detail level. As well as that, there's a 15.6-inch full HD screen, white backlit keyboard and a cool-looking style to the laptop.

Read more
Why is my printer offline? How to solve the most common printer problems
Ccleaner

When you need to print a label to prepare a shipment or output some documents for an important meeting, finding that your normally reliable printer is offline can be incredibly frustrating. Often you print something because it needs to be shipped or taken somewhere. When trouble arises, you're delayed and need a quick solution.

Even the best printers can run into trouble occasionally. Let's look at some common printer problems and how you can get it back online again.
The universal solution

Read more
The best laptops you can buy, tested and rated by experts
dell xps 13 9315 review 06

Our expert laptop reviewers have tested and reviewed more than 500 laptops over the years, searching for the best of the best. But to earn the crown as the best laptop in 2023, it needs to have it all: gorgeous design, killer performance, a productive keyboard, long-lasting battery life, and much more.

Each of the laptops below has been vetted thoroughly by us here at Digital Trends. Whether it's an affordable Chromebook or a top-of-the-line gaming laptop, they've all been subjected to real-world testing, as well as benchmark and battery tests, to collect data to objectively pit them against each other.

Read more