In Voltage Pictures, LLC v. Salna (Fed CA, 2025) the Federal Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal, here from the dismissal "(for the second time) [of] the appellants’ motion to certify this proposed reverse class proceeding".
Here the court characterizes IP addresses:
[14] The appellants used forensic software to obtain the IP addresses of Mr. Salna and members of the proposed class. The appellants assert that their forensic software detected proposed class members’ IP addresses as ones where BitTorrent was used to download some or all of the Works, which resulted in the downloaded Works being offered for upload to other BitTorrent users.
[15] An IP address is allocated by an ISP to the internet-connecting device of a subscriber and allows that device to connect to the internet. Each IP address is unique. However, devices like routers can share that internet connection (and, as a result, the corresponding IP address) with other devices, including cell phones, tablets, and computers. As such, many devices in a household may access the internet over a subscriber’s IP address. These devices may include the cell phones of guests to whom the subscribers provide their Wi-Fi passwords.
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