Finnish Government Investigates as Tens of Thousands Face Piracy ‘Fines’

As the article mentions - which I find especially problematic - private entities can petition the market court and obtain the contact information of the owners of IP addresses based on their self-supplied "evidence". At no point is the target notified of this nor given a chance to defend themselves. They can then send threatening letters demanding money from them.

How would ordinary people even know what IP addresses they've held in the past? One tactic they also apparently use is sending the letters months after the event. Would you be able to say what IP address you had months ago? Not to mention the fact that IP address != person.

You can also legally operate a passwordless WLAN or connect to one. That could prove to be an expensive proposition.

Of course, actual authorities would have to be involved for actually seizing devices for evidence etc.

One thing not mentioned is that in Finnish courts the losing party usually pays the winner's expenses and hence one person that fought this in court had the courts decide they had to pay 100€ for each movie (instead of the 600€ demanded), but they had to pay 31000€ for the winner's expenses.

Legalized extortion? I definitely think so.