Official Ares Free Download

 The major movie studios are having a bad time of it.

Thrashed after trying to sue Australian ISP iiNet, they’ve also been ordered to pay an estimated 4 million dollars in costs.

The money is no more than pocket change to the studios, which once again are reporting record revenues.

But where will it end if courts persist in taking the side  innocent victims, like this US grandmother who’s decided she isn’t taking any  Hollywood bullshit?

Now, “Take me off your hit list,” says Colorado artist Cathi ‘Cat’ Paradiso (right), as quoted by CNet News.

“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.”

Fired up by Hollywood hit unit the MPAA, her ISP, Qwest Communications, cut her off the net, on which she depends for her living. She was accused of  illegally downloading 18 films and TV shows including Zombieland, Harry Potter and South Park, says the story.

And there wasn’t a Three Strikes ‘graduated response’ law in sight.

In fact, “One of the problems we’ve had with the whole ‘three strikes’ concept that would kick people off the internet due to accusations, not convictions, of file sharing, is the fact that we hear all the time about innocent users accused of file sharing“, says Techdirt.

And “I’m the last person that would steal somebody’s art,” Paradiso states in the CNet story. “I’ve never downloaded a movie or song in my life. I’m against it. After going through this, I realize this is the kind of thing that could really hurt artists. I’m so paranoid now, I won’t buy music or movies online ever.”

Says Techdirt, “We had not heard that Qwest had signed on with a ‘three strikes’ program, so it’s a bit of news that it’s one of the companies who will accept bogus accusations. Not only that, but Qwest even told her that no other provider would grant her service because Qwest would let those other service providers ‘know her name and what she did.’ Thanks, Qwest!”

Enter BayTSP

Qwest spokeswoman Monica Martinez “declined to specify exactly what occurred in Paradiso’s case, citing possible litigation,” says CNet, observing Paradiso “said she never received any e-mails or letters from Qwest notifying her of the problem”.

She’s represented by Lory Lybeck, the lawyer who acts for Tanya Andersen, the Oregon mother falsely accused by the RIAA, the MPAA’s opposite number in the Land of Big Music, of illegal file sharing.

Who’s behind the allegations?

Online scalp hunter BayTSP.

Do the companies that tracked file sharing back to Paradiso bear any responsibility for the mix-up? – CNet asked BayTSP boss Mark Ishikawa (right),

His answer? “No.”

Really? Would he be likely to say Yes?

“Ishikawa notified Qwest that Paradiso’s IP address was being used to download ‘South Park’ and ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,”‘ both owned by Viacom,” says the story, adding:

“Ishikawa said that BayTSP has systems in place that do multiple checks to ensure that the people fingered for piracy are correctly identified. He added that mistakes are very rare and those wrongly accused represent only a tiny fraction of the people flagged for illegal file sharing.”

Meanwhile, the only way Paradiso got Qwest to back down was to get the media interested but if she hadn’t been able to do that, “she would have had no recourse,” says Techdirt, continuing:

“There was no one she could appeal to, and no official process to respond to the bogus claims of Hollywood. She got lucky that News.com was willing to pick up her story and contact Qwest, but what about anyone else threatened with bogus notices?”

BayTSP, “whose ‘evidence’ has been shown to be flimsy and easily falsified in the past, stands by accusing her of file sharing, saying it was her own fault for having an open WiFi network, suggesting there’s something inherently wrong with sharing your WiFi” it says, adding:

“Yes, the company stands by its false accusation. Nice company.”

Stay tuned.

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