"Games firms 'catching' non-gamers"

[ray_gillespie]

Very interesting story about hunting down game pirates here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7697898.stm

What I'd like to know is how they determine who is behind the IP address in question? I didn't think that UK ISPs were allowed/inclined to give out such information.

 

[Dark Atheist]

they aren't unless ordered to by a court order

 

[Geffy]

In the situations I've seen the lawyers contact the ISP, the ISP contacts the customer and relays the information for the lawyer. So they act as a broker between the two initially. They might have to identify the customer at some juncture though.

Its a sticky area though as an IP on its own is just that an IP address. The stickiness comes when that IP address is combined with an individuals data or used to build a profile of an individual. At this point the IP address is considered as Personally Identifiable Information and is therefor protected under the terms of the Data Protection Act, in which case the ISP is required to ask permission before releasing any of your details to a third party.

I'd heard of the IP as PII thing before, but a better source is out-law.com

 

[LordOfLA]

Ah, another story relating to Davenport Lyons.

By all accounts they are dropping all cases in which the defendants challenge the letter.