From Mike Masnick at Techdirt:

Copyright Troll John Steele Insists That 70-Year Old Is Responsible For Porn Downloads… Even If Someone Else Used WiFi

from the uh,-no dept

A bunch of folks have been sending in the story of a 70-year-old grandmother sued for downloading porn by bumbling copyright troll lawyer John Steele, whose claim to fame seems to be his ability to lose cases, as judges keep slamming his attempts to sue lots of people in what’s clearly a shakedown situation.

And while it’s entirely possible that a 70-year-old would download porn (who says they don’t like porn?), in this case, the woman seems suitably confused about what’s going on that it seems unlikely. At best, it sounds like she has an open WiFi, which someone else may have used. But, Steele is falsely claiming this doesn’t matter:

The letter from Steele suggests that someone else using an unsecured wireless network isn’t a viable legal defense for the account holder, noting that downloaders of child pornography have employed this excuse to no avail….

[….]

In an interview, he said anyone who fails to secure their Wi-Fi is as responsible for the subsequent crimes or tragedies as a parent who leaves a loaded gun within reach of a 3-year old.

This is simply untrue. In fact, generally speaking, US law and courts recognize that “service providers” don’t have liability for third party usage of their networks. There are some conditions and exceptions, but to make a blanket claim like Steele did is simply false. Given his track record with these lawsuits and the attempts to pressure people into settling, it’s no surprise that he’d mislead like that, but hopefully it just leads up to yet another court smacking him down.