Film Studios Battle Reddit for User IP Addresses

If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. That an IP address is not a person and cannot be conclusively tied to an individual is self-evident, but does a person have the right to anonymous speech? In a cynical attempt to circumvent First Amendment concerns, film companies are making the case that an IP address is not a person – which is often reiterated by defenders of those accused of content “piracy” – and even by courts. But film companies are now using the argument just so they could get Reddit to share IP addresses, and then, they could get to the person. This case, as reported by Torrent Freak, concerns Reddit users who post comments related to piracy, and therefore unmasking them would be a First Amendment violation in terms of anonymous speech. Voltage Holdings crops up again in this “war on piracy” as one of the companies in question. In the past, the targets of their legal action have been BitTorrent users, when the IP was used as proof that a certain individual is a “pirate.” That didn’t go so well, but now that Reddit has told a court IP addresses are identifying information, Voltage Holdings made the “not a person” argument, and said that anonymity would not be jeopardized by Reddit handing over IP address logs and unmasking them. Read the argument here. Reddit’s case is not as simple as that though, since the company claims that once they…Film Studios Battle Reddit for User IP Addresses