I know this is not Cisco specific, but I thought I would give it a try.
There has been a lot of recent discussion on the acquisition of P2P companies' logs by the RIAA/MPAA. Some posters on various forums claim that if the RIAA/MPAA obtain the logs for p2p companies, they can then in turn sue those who have downloaded files from those p2p networks. Of course, it seems to me that the RIAA/MPAA would have to get identification data from the ISP. And SBC has been asked by the RIAA to hand over that data, but they refused, and have gone to court.
However, if SBC does lose, and hands over the data, I wonder how long they keep data that could identify a user of a p2p network. So I asked SBC what logs they keep and how long for DSL subscribers. THey told me that they keep only subnet data, and not what IP number a particular subscriber has at any particular time. That subnet, they say, would include probably hundreds of subscribers. THey neglected to tell me how long they keep that data.
So, my question is, how could the MPAA/RIAA use subnet data to ID a user of a file trader, if they had obtained an IP number from the logs of a p2p network, and SBC gave them only subnet data, which apparently would consist of a list of maybe 100 subscribers who might have had that IP at that time.