Judge Decides IP Address Not Enough to Pinpoint a Bittorrent Pirate.
Hollywood Seeks Prosecution For Illegal Downloading of Adam Sandler Movie. Case is Dismissed On Lack Of Proof.
In a recent article by Royel Edwards at GIZMODO, he discusses why a federal case was recently dismissed against Thomas Gonzales, accused of illegally downloading Adam Sandler’s 2015 Movie, The Cobbler, via BitTorrent. With an average rating of 3.1/10 per the Tomatometer, we’ll skip over the debate as to whether the download was worthwhile.
Gonzales runs an adult foster care home and claims he wasn’t the only person accessing the internet. Oregon District Court Magistrate Judge Stacie Beckerman dismissed the case stating, “The only facts Plaintiff pleads in support of its allegation that Gonzales is the infringer, is that he is the subscriber of the IP address used to download or distribute the movie, and that he was sent notices of infringing activity to which he did not respond. That is not enough.”
Hollywood will undoubtedly keep trying to protect their property, keeping the courts busy with new cases being filed each week. Going forward, it appears they will need more than just an IP address to prove direct or indirect copyright infringement.
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