BBC Article - File Sharing - Lawyers.

Worth a read. See right hand column on 'Being hreatened'.

BBC News - Lawyers target thousands of 'illegal' file-sharers

If you mooch about the web you'll find lots of related articles including Virgin Media's new 'deep scanning' of files.

If I was ever caught my defence would be that my wireless network was open with no password.

Look seriously flawed

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www.nurburgring-photos.com

I don't have a static IP, they can't examine your hard drive as it's a civil case, how do they expect to win if one ever goes to court?

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Records of your IP address are kept by the ISP and they can link you to that address at a certain time.
Unlike with speeding fines there is no legal obligation to keep records of who was using the connection, I'd just keep sending it back saying it wasn't me and I'm not telling you who was using it.
So many people roll over and give them easy money I can't see them bothering much with hard work.

They're hoping/expecting most people they accuse of downloading porn will pay up rather than risk going to court where people will assume there's no smoke without a fire.

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Calling Atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair color. Don Hirschberg
My mother wanted me to be a priest. I don't even like little boys.

Which in itself can be considered to be an offence.

Aside from that you are still liable for any activities that are undertaken through your connection.

More stuff in the article below. Read what the lawyer has to say half way down.

Pub fined £8,000 for customer's illicit downloads, ZDNet reports | Technology | guardian.co.uk

That's confusing, their legal expert said that hotspot providers aren't liable but the hotspot provider in question was found liable in court.

Are they trying to protect copywrite by killing the internet?

No they are trying to make sure that for every offence there is someone that can be easily traced who can be held accountable. It doesn't matter if that person isn't actually the one that committed the crime, just that they can pin the crime on someone.

Of course it's confusing. It was a civil case but the headline mentions a fine.
The spokesman "...declined to name the pub involved in the case because the pub chain that owns is it is a client of The Cloud's". Did this case ever get to a hearing? If so the pub's name is public knowledge.

It's difficult to get any real information from that article but I suspect it was settled out of court by the pub chain thinking it would cost more than £8000 to defend.

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Calling Atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair color. Don Hirschberg
My mother wanted me to be a priest. I don't even like little boys.