Herk

So, I'd love to chime in here. Here is my take.

Terms of Service has nothing to do with copyright law. It is a contract. Lets assume that your ISP ToS said that each time your ISP called your house and asked for "Betty" you had to mail them one hundred million dollars. This would obviously be handled the same way and software ToS is handled in court... largely dismissed because not many people read these 20 page documents and we all know it.

Lets assume something else for fun here. Lets say you have an open network, and a hacker uses your network to hack a government system which ultimately sends the entire economy crashing to calamity. Since you didn't meet all the provisions in the ToS, a contract with an ISP, you think you are responsible for the hackers actions.

Acting like small business contracts have anything to do with law is absurd.

To prosecute somebody for something, it must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that they committed said crime. Proof of action is NOT synonymous with proof of possibility. On the other hand. Say the ISP incurred a fine for the illegal download activity. I believe that the ISP could sue the open network provider for losses incurred by not following the ToS and probably win. Disregard for contract resulted in loss, the party in breach should be responsible. This has nothing to do with criminal proceeding though.

Am I way off base? Have I misunderstood American law my whole life?

So, I'd love to chime in here. Here is my take.

Terms of Service has nothing to do with copyright law. It is a contract. Lets assume that your ISP ToS said that each time your ISP called your house and asked for "Betty" you had to mail them one hundred million dollars. This would obviously be handled the same way and software ToS is handled in court... largely dismissed because not many people read these 20 page documents and we all know it.

Lets assume something else for fun here. Lets say you have an open network, and a hacker uses your network to hack a government system which ultimately sends the entire economy crashing to calamity. Since you didn't meet all the provisions in the ToS, a contract with an ISP, you think you are responsible for the hackers actions.

Acting like small business contracts have anything to do with law is absurd.

To prosecute somebody for something, it must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that they committed said crime. Proof of action is NOT synonymous with proof of possibility. On the other hand. Say the ISP incurred a fine for the illegal download activity. I believe that the ISP could sue the open network provider for losses incurred by not following the ToS and probably win. Disregard for contract resulted in loss, the party in breach should be responsible. This has nothing to do with criminal proceeding though.

Am I way off base? Have I misunderstood American law my whole life?

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-Blind faith runs into things!-