> it's almost impossible to argue that you pirated in the first place
Wouldn't the ISP be able to prove you were assigned that IP at that time of day?
Wouldn't the ISP be able to prove you were assigned that IP at that time of day?
You can't really take DMCA notices with a "grain of salt". Many ISPs will just cut you as a customer after you get enough of them, as DMCA notices require effort on their part and the amount of effort their IT and legal staff spend dealing with other IT and legal staff looking for you quickly exceeds how much you are paying a month. So unless your area has an overabundance of ways to get internet to your home (in which case you must not live in America), you probably can't afford to have your ISP ban you from using their service.
After you do that, they basically forget all the notices (although the copyright holder can still sue you).
Most copyright protection services, generally just grab thousands of IP addresses and send notices (without knowing who you really are). If you do respond, they'll then sue you if you refuse their exorbitant fine (along with countless others who did the same - as it's generally too expensive to sue just one person).
An IP address is not grounds for proof anymore. It's like saying every citizen is assigned their own IPV4 address, which is likely wrong, as more often than not an IPV4 address is shared by a pool of users.