Is this like the chewbacca defense?

Professor Ed Felten discusses the story wherein a British man, who was acquitted of possessing child pern on his computer, had argued and presented evidence that an intruder put it there.

Dr. Lenz commenting on Felten's post says that "[i]f you take the presumption of innocence serious, the government has to prove it was [the computer owner]." And that proof ain't pudding without a strong security system.

Now, Wired is reporting that "one 22-year-old college student ... downloads music from a friend's computer instead of his own."

Will the "it was the one armed man" defense hold up in court or will the RIAA be able to prove who's downloading it's music?

Based on what's discussed above, it would seem unlikely that the RIAA could prove who's the downloader behind the username in a dorm. It will definitely be interesting to see if any of the current RIAA targets offer this as a defense and how the courts react.

Unfortunately, however, for you commuter kids, the lawyers are going to try and hold your parents liable for your P2P downloads, as this vnunet article contends: "Parents will be held responsible for any consequences arising from their children's downloading of copyrighted music if they know about it and permit it, or if they have the opportunity to prevent it and fail to do so."

Or you could always set up your file sharing camp in Palestine: "There aren't too many process servers that are going to be coming into the Jenin refugee camp. We'll welcome them if they do."