Spoofing? Never heard of it
This story pretty much speaks for itself, but here’s a brief setup.
Jammie Thomas was sued by the Recording Industry Association of America for sharing a couple of dozen songs she illegally downloaded. Thomas’ defense in court was that someone spoofed her IP address and it was actually that person who downloaded and shared the songs.
CNET News Blog picks up the story from there:
In the interview with Wired’s David Kravets, [juror Michael] Hegg, a steelworker, said that during deliberations, the jury concluded after only five minutes that Thomas was guilty … “Spoofing? We’re thinking, ‘Oh my God, you got to be kidding.’ She’s a liar.”
Needless to say, Thomas is appealing, hoping to draw a slightly more tech-savvy jury next time around.
In defense of the tech-illiterate juror, the IT industry does have a lot of ridiculous terms and acronyms that you can’t expect nontechies to understand. But still, couldn’t Hegg just have looked it up on the Internet? I guess the jury room didn’t have wireless access.
Posted: October 12th, 2007 under Tech Lite.
Let’s be considerate. Not all professionals are familiar and updated with computer terms and jargons. I asked my friends who are into e-commerce about the word spoofing. I found out that 2 out of 10 only know about spoofing in the world of computer or IT. If this is something new, do you know any good read or place where we can fully understand what spoofing is all about?
Comment by personalized corporate gifts — October 14, 2007 @ 11:25 pm
When did the Recording Industry Association of America feel that one person that shared a couple of dozen songs with friends is important enough to take to court? I feel the Recording Industry Association of America would be perfectly fine with owning all music and movie rights and we have to pay them every time we would like to listen to a song or watch a movie. They want to monopolize their industry and it looks as if they are going to get their way. Why not, they have been ripping off the musical artists for years and by people finding a way around their racket they are having to find another way to protect their income and that is to use the court system. You see they can bully their rights because they have deep pockets with all kinds of money that would bankrupt any one person who fights them. I would be more than happy to pay the artist for their songs but to pay the Recording Industry Association of America for nothing but to fill their greedy pocket full of money is no longer needed due to technology. Recording Industry Association of America you’ve been severed a dose of technology and you just need to adapt not bully your way into the future.
Comment by Concerned American — October 16, 2007 @ 11:05 am
My worst nightmare has come true; idiots have taken over the world! It’s a sad day when our legal system rides on the backs of the uninformed. It reminds me of that movie, Idiocracy (which is really funny, and you should check it out if you haven’t seen it.
Comment by Amy Kucharik — October 16, 2007 @ 11:14 am
I find that it’s a bit too easy to forget how technically illiterate much of the population continues to be, especially outside of the IT industry or the journalism crowd covering it. Even the folks who have sussed out how to install applications, remove spyware and block their kids’ access to unmentionable pornographic Web sites may be confounding by the concept of IP spoofing.
As for where to go, “Personalized Corporate Gifts,” I’d of course advocate for WhatIs.com and SearchSecurity.com!
I like to think that we’ve at least educated our own audience a bit; WhatIs.com’s Word of the Day yesterday was Vouch by Reference, which is is an e-mail header tagging mechanism whereby senders can list third parties known as domain certification services that will attest to their integrity and good standing in the Internet community.
Vouch by reference uses the domain name in the sender’s e-mail address (the part that follows the at symbol) to determine the sender’s domain of origin. IP spoofing, which is what the woman in question may well have been victimized by, isn’t as easily protected about or understood.
The nasty action in question (also known as IP address forgery or a host file hijack) is a hijacking technique in which a cracker masquerades as a trusted host to conceal his identity, spoof a Web site, hijack browsers, or gain access to a network.
As for the jurors figuring that out with wifi, well, come now. If they aren’t allowed newspapers or cellphones to avoid contamination, I think it’s a safe bet that unfettered Net access is off the table!
Comment by Alex — October 18, 2007 @ 10:43 am
Sounds to me as if her lawyer didn’t do his job very well. The average juror can’t be expected to be an expert in the details of such things, anymore than they would necessarily know exactly how every part of a car works. Explaining and demonstrating IP spoofing and other such things to the jurors so they could understand should have been integral to his defense.
Comment by Eric Harris — October 18, 2007 @ 11:24 am