I work for an ISP. We make all our customers sign paperwork stating that they have read, agree to and will obey our Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy, and other policies before we will give them service. We don’t actively monitor their internet connections, but if we receive a notice of copyright infringement against an IP address, we will issue the customer one warning. If we receive another on the same customer, we will terminate their service. I am sure AT&T makes customers sign this stuff as well.
They signed the contract agreeing to this. We do not need a court order, we do not need to take them to court. We own the network they are connecting through. If they got hacked, or their wireless is insecure, thats not our problem. It states in our Terms of Service and AUP that security is the CUSTOMER’S responsibility, and the CUSTOMER is responsible for all users of the Internet connection.
In addition, anyone with half a brain knows that any ISP worth a damn keeps track of what customers have what IP addresses at what time. Its not that hard to prove where it came from.
