SCC To Weigh In On Fees For Identifying ISP Subscribers: Rogers V. Voltage

One of the essential and recurring challenges of regulating unlawful conduct on the Internet—be it child pornography, harassment, fraud, data theft, content piracy, or otherwise—is identifying who is responsible.

Frequently, one can identify an IP address that is (or may be) a target of interest. IP addresses can be traced to responsible organizations, through publicly accessible registries. However, to complete the chain back to a person generally requires the cooperation of the organization.

Commercial ISPs are in the business of providing IP addresses (and network connectivity) to their customers. So, inevitably, they find themselves on the receiving end of many requests to identify their subscribers.