Quote:
Originally Posted by martyh
yes i know all of this .I am asking HOW they will know which of the files i have just downloaded are copyrighted and which aren't, without getting court orders and such like for everybody they think is illegally downloading
At the moment my understanding (and please correct if wrong)is the tech is available but on a limited scale i.e people downloading child porn ,this is illegal but suspects are subject to their computer being searched only after a court order is obtained through probable cause the same for terror suspects ect
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They only need to prove one instance. If they engage a third party to facilitate downloading of a file that they hold copyright on and you are then identified as someone who downloaded it from that third party then that pretty much nails it.
As for "probable cause" this is a (much over used) American constitutional term and therefore not relevant here in the UK from a legal perspective. The UK equivalent is "reasonable suspicion". The threshold for reasonable suspicion can be as simple as someone reasonably suspecting ie "thinking" that a crime has been or may in the future be committed.
Given the accuracy and high quality of personally identifiable evidence available through credit / debit card subscription payments to certain services which explicitly advertize their services as being capable of carrying out illegal actions as part of their allure then it is entirely reasonable to assume that those types of activities are engaged in by subscribers.
The days of illegal filesharing are numbered. A generation has spent the best part of the last 12-15 years arguing their right to steal / infringe on others copyrights.
While they were stuck to their screens agog with wonderment and busying themselves with free copies of albums, softwares and movies the legislators were eroding civil liberties and privacy laws to the point that council officials can now seize your goods, civil servants and others can force entry to your home and detain you with no warrant and young men can be brought to trial by jury for "thinking" about a school massacre.
Anyone who thinks the "without a court order" nonsense will continue to hold up in the face of the decimation of an industry which had previously contributed billions to the British GDP against some half baked (nazi funded in the case of the site you mentioned earlier) ideal of a cultural free for all is living in cloud cuckoo land.
Sorry, but that's how it's going to pan out.