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Protect yourself online from illegal file sharers
Illegal file-sharers are being targeted by lawyers acting for the affected industries
But some of the thousands under fire are innocent and now face a struggle to prove it, writes Andrew Stucken.
Around six million people in the UK share files every year - downloading music, films and games worth millions. Lawyers are planning a 'conveyor belt' campaign against alleged illegal file-sharers – some of whom have done nothing wrong.
One such case surrounds Gill Murdoch and her husband, from Inverness. They received a letter from law firm Davenport Lyons, acting for games giant Atari, claiming they had shared a game. This despite never playing a computer game or having anyone in the home who might have downloaded them.
They have been asked to pay £500 compensation and £25 costs, or face legal proceedings with probable far higher costs.
And they are not alone. Consumer magazine Which? says more than 50 people have emerged with the same problem. It is meanwhile claimed hundreds more have been falsely accused of copyright infringement.
How can this be happening? Those accused have all been shown to have used freely available peer-to-peer (P2P) software to upload copyright material. IP addresses (a computer’s unique numerical address) have been used to identify them.
The likely explanation is that their IP addresses have been hijacked by hackers. Piggybacking – finding and using someone else’s unsecured Wi-Fi network – could similarly mean your Wi-Fi network being used for illegal purposes, for which you can be held responsible.
To protect yourself from hackers and piggybackers, there are a number of steps you can take to improve security.
(1) Install up-to-date firewall and anti-virus software, if you have not done so already.
(2) If you use a broadband router for internet access, it means you have a Wi-Fi (wireless) network. Poor security leaves your network vulnerable to attack. Enable your Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). Choose a hard-to-guess password and change it at intervals.
(3) Monitor broadband use. Most ISPs enable this – but be aware not all spikes in usage are suspicious. If you are not accustomed to downloading or heavy broadband use, look for possible reasons for any sudden increases. For example, viewing videos on YouTube can use a lot of bandwidth.
(4) Disable file sharing if using P2P. So far only uploaders – those who allow others to share their games – have been targeted for compensation.
You can moreover prevent legitimate computer users – e.g. grandchildren – from file sharing on your computer. Various parental control programmes exist for blocking access to selected websites and programmes, e.g. CyberPatrol and PC Tattletale.
If you are nevertheless unlucky enough to be falsely accused you of illegal file sharing, you can collect counter-evidence. When asked by Which?, Davenport Lyons stated they would pursue cases "only if our clients are satisfied the defence is false or that they unreasonably failed to secure their systems against illegal file-sharers."
So if you are one of the estimated eight million Britons with an unsecured Wi-Fi network, a few moments' attention to security could pay big dividends.
