Public internet connection and RIAA

Kilarney

I have a friend (seriously) who lives next door to the library. He can connect to the library's open wireless connection. Leaving aside the issue of leeching off of the library's internet network (which is intended for public access), is my friend fairly insulated from the RIAA/MPAA if he downloads while connected to this network? It seems to me that he would be, although I might be missing something here.

One other thought... Do you remember the old computer game "Lemonade Stand?" I played it as a young kid on an Apple II, although I've seen web versions of it. In that game, you had to set the right price for your product to balance sales with profit. It taught kids that a lower price might actually lead to greater profit through additional sales. When is the entertainment industry going to learn this lesson? I would gladly pay $1-$2 for a film that I could download onto my computer. Any more than that, and I am not interested - I'll just stick to my Netflix and music subscription service. Perhaps they get more profits if I do use Netflix, but I doubt it.

I think it's crazy that the movie companies want $20 for a downloaded movie. It's not as good a form as DVD, and the movie may suck! I can't stand how they want you to assume the risk that the movie blows. Quite arrogant, if you ask me.

GauntletWizard

Yes, your friend is fairly well insulated from any RIAA/MPAA reprecusions. Not only would they have to track the IP to the library, but they'd have to then convince the library to figure out which computer had connected to their open AP, and then track that MAC address to his machine. Both steps 2 and 3 are nearly impossible: The library is prohibited from divulging the information about what people are looking up online, and then it'd be nearly impossible to track a MAC address to a person (There's really no good way to do it, and as it's now really easy to spoof a mac address, they'd be completley at a loss to prove that the mac was infact his laptop). Even if they got to him, he could easily have them thrown out of court for breaking every privacy law in the book, and sue the library for the same.

And yeah, the MPAA is crazy. If they were to simply make movie downloads simple, fast, cheap, and unencrypted, they'd double/triple their sales. You pay $5, download a movie and have it ready the next day, then simply burn it to dvd and stick it in your DVD player. Everybody would buy 2-3 times as many movies, and the costs of distribution would basically be eliminated. There's really nothing that you get in the physical DVD that you'd want, and the little you do get, like cover art and a case could easily be remedied: offer the cover art with the DVD, and then sell blank DVD cases for people who really want it to print their own cover and stick the disc in. Who'd bother waiting 2-3 days for bittorrent (even if the MPAA DVD downloads would make it higher-quality) when you can get a legit copy next-day for $5?

Thaed

The library is prohibited from divulging the information about what people are looking up online,

Even if they got to him, he could easily have them thrown out of court for breaking every privacy law in the book, and sue the library for the same.

While I don't necessarily disagree with your conclusion, library information is easily subpoenaed in a civil suit. The MPAA would merely file a "John Doe" lawsuit and subpoena the library for whatever information it had. Privacy laws do not trump subpoena power. Also, every computer microprocessor has a unique identifier number.

Moreover, if the down-loader downloaded material from a "honey pot" site, those sites are designed to track the people that use them and then leave evidence on the downloading computer. It's possible that a honey pot site could glean enough information to get the down-loader alone.

While it would be difficult as you have suggested to catch Kilarney's friend, it would not be impossible.

GauntletWizard

Couple things:

No, supoena's really don't trump the privacy laws and constitutional protections of a library. It is almost impossible to get a criminal warrant that is strong enough to view your library history, and if EVER a corporation were to be able to get such, I would personally march on washington ARMED. Also, while microprocessors do have serial numbers, it's quite a strecth for a)Such serial number to be transmitted across the internet, b) that serial number to be stored by the librarys gateway and c) that serial number to be tracked down to your friend.

Also, there is almost nothing that a honey-pot BT tracker can do to "leave evidence on the downloading computer". The way BT honeypots work is by tracking the the IP's of the computers that connect to it. Nothing more, nothing less. That still puts them right back at the starting point: tracing a library IP to a specific computer.