Copyright Law

UK Law Firm Quits Suing File-Sharers En Masse, Another Takes its Place

By soulxtc

Davenport Lyons says it works for "clients in the sphere of illegal file-sharing has reached its conclusion," while ACS: LAW is just getting started.

Davenport Lyons has been targeting suspected file-sharers in massive sweeps accusing them of illegally downloading everything from video games to porn. The alleged file-sharers have received letters from the law firm demanding payment of £500 ($773 USD) compensation for copyright infringement, but many, most notably a non-gaming elderly couple, have been wrongly accused and consumer group Which? filed a formal complaint with the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA).

The law firm used IP addresses gleaned from a Swiss firm Logistep from BitTorrent swarms.

Now apparently a new law firm called ACS: LAW is now taking up the file-sharing cases. It has also been reported that there have been staff swaps between the two offices and the documents being sent out bearing an uncanny resemblance to those sent out by Davenport Lyons, although Davenport Lyons have gone on record saying the two firms are in no way linked. Davenport Lyons no doubt grew weary of all the bad publicity it received for targeting so many innocent people.

"There is no connection, financial or otherwise, between Davenport Lyons and ACS: LAW. Davenport Lyons will continue to undertake file-sharing work for other clients," it told The Register in a statement.

The law firm also confirmed that it was no longer pursuing illegal file-sharing cases. "Davenport Lyons’ agreed work for a number of its clients in the sphere of illegal file-sharing has reached its conclusion," it adds.

But, where Davenport Lyons stopped, ACS: LAW began, sending out letters en masse in a similar fashion as its "predecessor," and it too is targeting oftentimes innocent people.

For a file-sharer reported already receiving a letter from ACS: Law for downloading a title for a game system he doesn’t even own!

He writes:

I was quite shocked when i opened my post this morning to find a threatening letter from ACS: LAW for the game dream pinball 3d!

They are asking for £730 to be paid within 21 days.

I thought some of you may be interested in this, i expect there will be a lot of people getting letters from these guys!

Their Website is here for those who are interested. http://www.acs-law.org.uk/

On further inspection of this letter i noticed that the game in question is actually a nintendo Wii game, i do not own a Wii, i have never owned a Wii and nobody in this household has ever owned a Wii so why the hell would i download this game?

This is some kind of scam, no way i will pay this! i would rather go to prison than pay for something i didn’t do!

It’s already been proven by researchers that BitTorrent is prone to false positives for copyright infringement, so why a firm would demand pre-litigation settlement offers proves it’s not interested in justice, but rather "compensation."

Full post as published by ZeroPaid on May 15, 2009 (boomark / email).