My friend lives in Texas, and recently had his internet shut off plus got a $400 fine from his internet service provider for copyright infringement of illegally downloaded porn. This turns out to have been done by is roommate, but the whole thing just makes no sense. The federal court ruled that an ISP is not responsible for downloads of its customer so why would the go to such a measure? Is there anything he can do?

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There's not really much your friend can do, other than get his roommate to confess to the ISP that the roomie is the one who did the illegal downloading. The ISP is within its rights to refuse to give service to someone who is using it illegally. Most ISPs have a Registration Agreement, or Terms of Service agreement, which will spell out the acceptable use of the service.

He should get a new ISP and not pay the fine. I don't understand what right the ISP has to fine him. If this is something they say they have a legal right to do and it is going to be reported to the credit agencies, he should try to sue in small claims court.

He cannot be fined by his Internet service provider . Only courts can fine you. And that's only if you were charged with AND convicted of a crime. BUT, copyright infringement, in this case, is not a criminal case, it's a civil law case. ( The difference is explained in the link below, section 506) That means in order to have to pay anybody any money, they have to sue you and win the case. That happens only after you have been been given written notice that you are being sued, are told which court and when your case will be heard, and you lose the case. You can only be sued by the OWNER of the copyright, and that is the owner of the porn film, NOT the Internet Service Provider. Ever. Never ever. And you can pretty much be sure you will not see a porn producer walk into a court room because he wants to be there. If he did, it would make the news. Bottom line is somebody is scamming the guy. And THAT'S a crime!

His ISP cannot legally "fine" him for anything. He can sue them for fraud or "unfair and deceptive business practices" for even attempting to extort money from him, and possibly request criminal charges against them as well. If he violated the terms and conditions of the service, including letting his roommate do something stupid, then they may certainly terminate his account. But they cannot fine him.

You're right, that makes no sense. Sounds too me like he's been scammed. Either by the ISP or buy someone pretending to be them.

The ISP is within its rights to terminate service if it chooses. So long as it's in writing somewhere (and I'm also going to bet that your friend didn't read his ISP's terms of service when he signed that he agreed to them), they're covered. They can also charge a separate fee to reconnect service - and $400 doesn't look like it's outside the realm of what could be charged here. Same stipulation as above, though - it has to be in writing. However, if he chooses to go with a different ISP, this charge can't be applied/enforced. Editing this in - some ISP's may be able to try and collect the early termination fee if he was in a contract, if that was noted in the TOS.