To be honest, all they should have been able to do him for is the "conventional dumpster diving and mail theft techniques" (plus anything that he did with the IDs after he had them).

If someone share something with a P2P program, someone else will get a copy of it. That's not theft, it's sharing. If the end user is too stupid to not hide their confidential documents when using Limewire then that, to me, is the same as if they'd left their car keys hanging out of the door of the vehicle: Stupid, and the insurance company won't cover it.

I must disagree with ya, if the world was like you just explained that would be a total chaos!

It's not cause i let my keys in my car that you have the right to steal it ... maybe the insurance won't cover it, i'm not an expert, but i still can sue you in court for stealing my car ... and you'll have to face the justice for that!

It's the same thing here, the man who left personnal information about him on LimeWire wasn't aware of that, was kind of a virus or a malware!!!

If a girl is naked on the street, do you have the right to rape her? i don't think so, it's not because it's an easy target that's it's legal ...

It's worse than leaving their keys in the car door. That isn't an invitation to take the car, and doing so would still be TWOCing or Grand Theft Auto (since it's a US story).

Putting documents on limewire should be viewed as giving permission for anyone to download them. Although clearly that doesn't excuse ID theft and fraud happening after the downloading.

Duff analogy. The thief of a car whose keys were left hanging on its door would still be prosecuted. All the person who accidentally shared the files had inadvertently effectively invited the world to do was take a copy and pass it on, not use it for fraud.

Having said that, any 'computer hacking' charges are totally unjustified if this is all the 'high tech' crime the guy committed. This is not breaking and entering, just using a service, which I think is the point the first anonymous commenter above was making.

[...the same as if they'd left their car keys hanging out of the door of the vehicle: Stupid, and the insurance company won't cover it.]

True, but it's *still* theft to take the vehicle (or what's inside it) and you'll still get nicked.

AC is right, it wouldn't be theft as the naughty fraudster wouldn't be depriving the victim of the information, just taking a copy.

Wonder if the victim could sue for copyright infringement though..... :)

When setting up P2P clients you are usually asked which drives/folders etc. you want to share. If you are going to select 'My Computer' for sharing then, yes, you have willingly opened up your machine for all to rifle through.

If you are not paying attention or don't know what you are doing then it's still you that has opened it up to the world and not the world coming at your machine with a can opener.

No, it's not the same as leaving car keys in the ignition or (how dense can some people be - Daily Mail reader, perhaps) attacking a nekkid woman in the street - it's the same as taking your front door off its hinges and putting a bloody great big illuminated sign that says "come in and help yourself".

Copyright infringement doesn't even come in to it as you have willingly shared the stuff - no-one has to break in or take without asking. A softer analogy would be that it;'s the same as people who put baskets of windfall fruit out for any who passed to grab what they want.

If some bright spark who went to school could post the latin for 'Sharer Beware' I'd be grateful.

Doesn't matter how you get the information. If you impersonate somebody then it's fraud.