- Sep 12, 2008
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I have my wifi open. Does this mean I am liable if my neighbors on either side use it to share porn?
If you use, or operate, a password-free wireless network then legal action being taken in the US by the adult movie industry might just be about to rain on your parade warns one European IT threat mitigation expert.
The lawsuit was filed by Liberty Media Holdings, a producer of adult movie content based in San Diego, and accuses in excess of 50 people in Massachusetts (where the lawsuit has been filed) of downloading and consequently sharing a gay porn movie illegally via BitTorrent. The complaint itself makes a point of claiming that the defendants either have direct responsibility as they downloaded the movie themselves or, importantly, that they contributed to the act of piracy by way of their negligence in not securing the wireless network concerned. In other words, whether they downloaded it themselves or not doesn't matter, they are being held responsible for the controlling, or rather not controlling in this case, access to the Internet which was then used to infringe copyright.