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Sony Pictures and MPAA Shut Down Free WiFi in Coshocton, Ohio
A crackdown notice from Sony Pictures has prompted A free municipal wifi, service used by several hundred people, in the small town of Coshocton, Ohio to be shut down - all because of one person illegally downloading a movie.
The local newspaper reports that one perosn used the wifi network to "illegally" download a movie which led to the local Internet Service Provider to receive a "breach notice" from Sony Pictures Entertainment, resulting in the county shutting down the free wifi service.
Elizabeth Kaltman, vice president of corporate communications with the Motion Picture Association of America, said movie piracy is something the industry fights everyday.
“It’s a very, very common occurrence all across the U.S., in towns big or small,” she said.
The newspaper goes to say the county thought it was convenient service that was used by visitors and merchants, however, a Coshocton official said the county does not support illegal downloading. Certainly, the small county of Coshocton could not afford any sort of Civil Suit from the Motion Picture Association of America nor Sony Pictures Entertainment.



Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (4)
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James Carey (not verified)at 09:19 on November 13th, 2009
An ISP, any ISP is not and should not be held responsible for the actions of its customers... only its employees. What is next? Holding an ISP because Jim-Bob's grandmother got ripped off on eBay? Better still, blaming them because Ronny the disgruntled husband sent an email to the professional killer he contracted telling him to go ahead with the hit? Why not say they are responsible when Junior starts downloading porn? Why stop there, why not hold cell phone companies responsible for allowing drug dealers and pimps conduct business on their networks? They should be monitoring every conversation, right? What every happened to the individual being responsible for their own actions? If left unchecked, where will this end? I am a former network administrator, it is impossible to monitor and filter all traffic going through a network without erroneously stopping innocent traffic. One reason is that all file sharing is not illegal! Think about this, do you really want your ISP examining every email, picture, sound byte and video you send to transmit? Why should they be forced to do what the government can not do without a warrant issued upon probable cause?Where will this end? It is not the ISP's responsibility to enforce the law. That is the job of law-enforcement.
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Over It (not verified)at 05:32 on November 14th, 2009
Amen.
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Tom Hereford (not verified)at 12:46 on November 13th, 2009
We should boycott all movies by studios that are members of MPAA. They are: Sony, Warner Brothers, Disney, Paramount, 20th Century Fox and Universal.Let 'em know you are boycotting too:LA: (818) 995-6600DC: (202) 293-1966Boycott for Freedom
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jmv2009 (not verified)at 05:31 on November 15th, 2009
The RIAA/MPAA needs to sue the person who downloaded the movie. It also needs to come to terms with anonymous internet access.