Hey friends!

Let’s say (hypothetically) that my friend got a (hypothetical) letter threatening legal action for (hypothetical) copyright violation of adult content, and they provided an IP address which is not quite, but almost the same as my friends own IP address.

If my friends current IP is in the form “12.345.XXX.XXX”, then the provided IP is of the form “12.345.YYY.YYY”, where the X and Y numbers differ, but the first 2 parts are the same (although I obviously changed it here). The provided IP links to the same city as the original, but it is different in the last 2 parts. The provided IP was supposedly recorded back in September. Also, according to whatsmyipaddress[dot]com, both addresses are “Likely Static”.

Could my friends IP have been the prodived one a few months ago, and then changed by my ISP? Can this be linked back to my friend?

I’m not asking for legal advice, simply to understand the IP protocol a bit better.

Also, sorry if this isn’t the correct community to post such a question.

Thanks!

  • LastTrainH0me@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    If you got the letter, your ISP must have linked the IP to you. That’s how these things work: rights holders tell the ISP that they have proof that someone from Ip address X uploaded their material on date Y, and then the ISP matches that up to a customer.

    Without the ISP involved, the rights holder has no way of matching an IP to an identity