I'd like to send a shout out to MacDaddy B, who somehow has stumbled his way back online. Feels like coming home, doesn't it?

Privacy has been running amok in the press as of late and everyone is getting in on this. B (as previously mentioned) just finished posting on the latest P2P filesharing issue. Apparently the Federal Court has released the usernames and IP addresses of 29 individuals who are sharing too many mp3s. This IP tracking is stirring the issue and causing people to throw their arms up in anger, sound alarms, and call it a blatant disregard for privacy.

I, for one, don't think this is a disregard for privacy at all. You sign on with an ISP voluntarily and agree to their terms. It's not like anyone holds a gun to your head and forces you to go online and sign these agreements. In fact, they will attest that they are not responsible for the action taken by their clients. This forces the responsibility on those who truly deserve it - the file sharers and the pirates. It's a smart and necessary legal action taken by ISPs if you ask me.

Legally, ISPs must track the actions going on within their network. A few have been nailed in the past for negligence and the industry has become a lot more strict because of it. To be able to reap all the rewards of the Internet and still remain anonymous in one's actions is a completely ludicrous thought. It would be like someone coming to my store, trading in some product, and refusing an ID check. It's happened before and we have a standard responses to this: "I'm sorry, but if you want our money we need to know who you are."

Keep in mind that when online, your IP address is your identity. If the government looks at records that indicate that someone's doing illegal things, I should hope they would pin them down for it. The same goes for online actions. If someone's IP address appears on a list of notorious file sharers and pirates, they should be nailed to the wall if the situation checks out. They shouldn't be arrested or investigated without a search warrant, but this information should be enough to get one.

I realize that it's not a perfect system for tracking. Routers and such will block true IPs from getting out and this causes a problem in determining exactly who has broken the law. Perhaps this calls for a change in protocol so that tracking is made easier and more accurate. Technology adapts to new problems, and I'm sure this one will be solved by a change in the way we identify ourselves online.

In the case of a drive up on a "hot spot" in a wireless network, the responsibility falls on the shoulders of the administrators. Certainly, the word is out that wireless is not very secure. Most of the time, wireless is not required and is simply out of convenience. Although it is convenient, it's a matter of risk versus reward. If you get into wireless networking, you need to be aware that these things can happen. It's simple common sense, really.

If you ask me, online privacy is overrated. If we had complete privacy, we wouldn't be able to track down software pirates. We wouldn't be able to search out pedophiles who trade child pornography. We wouldn't be able to search out sex offenders on the net. Anonymity is a dangerous concept, and there simply must be a governing body with methods to pinpoint criminal actions.

- Colin (invincibleironman@hotmail.com)