Earlier this week, we told you about how the torrent freaks at TorrentFreak claimed to have discovered that some people at anti-piracy stalwart the Recording Industry Association of America had been illegally using BitTorrent to download copyrighted material, including five full seasons of Showtime hit Dexter. RIAA has since come out with an explanation, one that sounds exactly like the defense used by the very people it has pushed to have prosecuted — “it wasn’t us.”

“We checked the block of IP addresses allocated to RIAA staff to access the Internet and no RIAA employee was responsible for this alleged use of bittorrent,” a rep for RIAA tells cnet. “Those partial IP addresses are similar to block addresses assigned to RIAA. However, those addresses are used by a third party vendor to serve up our public Web site.”

TorrentFreak responds to RIAA’s defense thusly:

First of all, the addresses are not similar, they are simply assigned to the RIAA. Everyone can look that up here, or here.

Secondly, while we are prepared to believe that RIAA staff didn’t download these files, we are left wondering what mysterious third party did. Also, is it even allowed by the official registry to register a range of IP-addresses to your private organization, and then allow others to use these IPs?

The site also points out that many of the more than 20,000 people who have been sued by the RIAA over alleged illegal downloads also used a similar defense to no avail. “Can these people have their money back now?” TorrentFreak asks. “We doubt it.”

RIAA: Someone Else Is Pirating Through Our IP-Addresses [TorrentFreak.com]

BitTorrent downloads linked to RIAA, DHS IP addresses [cnet.com]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.