Andre Yoskowitz
2 Feb 2010 12:48
Cnet has reported today that a 53-year old grandmother almost had her Internet service suspended for alleged piracy, although it was never proven that she had downloaded anything she was accused of.
Qwest Communications told her that she was accused of downloading 18 Hollywood movies including Zombieland and the latest Harry Potter, and that her service was set to be terminated. More harshly, her name would be placed on a blacklist for other ISPs in the area to know what she had done.
Cathi Paradiso is a technical recruiter and obviously needs her computer and working Internet connection to live. She emailed the movie studios accusing her, as well as Cnet, and asked for help: "Take me off your hit list. I have never downloaded a movie. Period... You'll need to admit you made a mistake and move on to the correct perpetrator... I am saying this once more: My computer is not a toy. My livelihood depends on my ISP's reliability. Look for the perpetrator and leave my service alone."
Before shutting her off, Qwest sent out a technician to investigate and they found that her wireless network had been infiltrated and someone had been using it to download the movies.
Adds Fred von Lohmann, senior staff attorney for the EFF: "This goes to show that there's a problem with due process in these kinds of situations. If you're going to kick somebody off the Internet, there's a lot of procedures that need to be put in place to protect the innocent. It doesn't look like those were in place here."
Read the full post here: Grandma endures wrongful ISP piracy suspension