Originally Posted by GeoffW

Is there a legal precedent to making the bill payer liable for everything that passes over it? I dont buy the car speeding analogy, simultaneous things can happen over the same link over multiple computers and one person cannot reasonably check what others are doing on it. In the car case there is evidence of a car (= a PC) having done something specific at a specific time, in the PC case they cannot prove it was a specific PC. I can prove I was posting on this forum at that very second so it wasnt me etc and there are 6 other PCs behind this NAT router.

If they gained a search warrant and there is more the one PC, which PC could they take, what if a specific PC wasn't there anymore? What if someone had hacked my wireless network etc... There are many possibilities that would be beyond the control of the registered owner.

I'm not condoning illegal downloading, I'm just intrigued about the powers they have and the burden of proof they must establish to get a conviction.

In the US they can bring John Doe cases against nobody in particular and use that prosecution to gain access, here they don't have the same rights.