Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Angry
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.
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It might be an American term, but the same principle exists in UK law. You cannot simply draw a straight line from "downloads from newsgroups" to "downloads copyright material", no reasonable person would say a crime was being commited just because someone was downloading from newsgroups.
Then there's the point that search warrants are only obtainable for criminal copyright infringement, that being making copies in the course of a business, or mass distribution, neither of which are applicable for people downloading from newsgroups. An end user downloading a copy is a civil case, and without reasonable proof of you infringing on a specific copyright work a civil case isn't going to get off the ground.
I'm also not aware of any newsgroup provider that explicitly advertises the fact that binary newsgroups carry copyright material. In fact I can guarantee they don't as then they'd lose their safe harbour provisions.