O2 forced to give 9,000 porn pirates' details to smut baron

Gerald Lynch Broadband, Intellectual Property, Internet, Tech Digest news
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Over 9,000 O2 broadband customers caught illegally downloading pornography will have their personal details handed over to a major porn baron pressing for a settlement payout, it has been revealed today.

Ben Dover, the pseudonym for British porn actor, director and producer Lindsay Honey of Golden Eye International and Ben Dover Productions, was awarded the court order that saw O2 required by law to match iP addresses to the personal details of those downloading Honey’s films. 9,124 IP addresses in total were matched up, with Honey now expected to push for a settlement sum.

In O2’s defence, the ISP at least put up a good fight, trying to defend the privacy of their users. O2 fended off twelve court orders from the porn producers before unlucky number 13 forced their hand. According to the High Court, they eventually felt that “the claimants’ interests in enforcing their copyrights outweigh the intended defendants’ interest in protecting their privacy and data protection rights”.

O2’s fight however may have strengthened the rights of pirates in the future however. O2 may have set a new precedent, having fended off so many court orders demanding the personal details of their users. The speculative invoicing of lawyers like ACS :Law will now likely require far greater proof from claimants before users’ details are shared.

Via: The Telegraph

Gerald Lynch
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2 comments

  • Rubbish journalism, the accuracy of the collection method and matching by ISPs means there is no guarantee that any of customers have downloaded porn.  The court granting this does not look at the evidence.  O2 did not fight this at all it was a consumer organisation, O2 were just interested in how much money they would get paid to provide their customers eveidence.

  • Rubbish journalism, the accuracy of the collection method and matching by ISPs means there is no guarantee that any of customers have downloaded porn.  The court granting this does not look at the evidence.  O2 did not fight this at all it was a consumer organisation, O2 were just interested in how much money they would get paid to provide their customers eveidence.

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