Not really up on the Viacom case
But if Viacom suceed in getting the IP addresses of all who downloaded anything on youtube. Then All the big media companies will ask do the same surely and then who knows i doubt they will come after the person who downloaded one file but it is something to be aware of.
I think a lot of people forget its breaking copyright law and they could get into serious bother if they are one of the examples picked out as happened when p2p networks were busted a few years back.
Do remeber it may not be you the person paying for the ISP account who maybe downloading/uploading the info others members of the household, those who log onto your network (our company used to allow people to log in both via wirless and lan people in the background would have a p2p or torrent running
All forms of wirless encryption in most housholds can be broken easily, mac addresses can be cloned and turning your ssid well is just a waste of time.
you could have a trojan or some form of malware running on part of your network which could be used to dounload/upload via your IP address.
Isps to me are just like the Leccy and water boards but the Leccy board will notify the Police if usage go though the roof as normally its a sign of a Skunk farm or some other ilict operation occuring.
So if people have excessive bandwith being used i can see them informing the relevant authorities and letting them getting on with it.
The 3 strikes and your out could work.
You need to prove who you are to sign on to a contract and get connected moving house then creating a new Identiy is a little extreme for most of us.
Im sure your aware rob of credit lists, the national dismissal register and other registers kept by companies which we have little say in but companies for the most part abide by.
So if little john kept downloading files and got you struck off you may find yourself with out a internet connection or one restricted possibly?