ACS Law - Letter of Claim

curios

whattodo...? wrote: »

I got the same letter yesterday giving me 21 from the 9th of September to pay £495.

This company is perpetrating "legal blackmail". It will soon be the subject of Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, following 500+ complaints against the company:

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2010/08/24/acs-law-referred-to-disciplinary-tribunal-over-uk-isp-file-sharing-threat-letters.html

So, best to ignore the letter. The blackmailers will hopefully soon be closed down...

garth549

barvid wrote: »

> Even if it was genuine there is also no legal obligation to keep your wireless network secure (if you have one) so then it could have potentially been anyone on your street.

While this is true, I think you are responsible for what is downloaded, uploaded, or made available etc. over your connection.

I dont see how you could be to be honest. Your internet connection is merely a conduit for the traffic. Your liability can surely be no more than the ISPs or the owner of the infrastructure.

It's similar to saying that the manufacturer of a kitchen knife should be held liable for a murder because the weapon used was made by them. BMW should be held liable for a robbery because one of their cars was used in a getaway etc etc.

What im saying is that you cant really be held responsible for the actions of others.

curios

shanks84 wrote: »

I have also received a letter today, from ACS

Here's a good place to start:

http://www.beingthreatened.com/resources/The-Speculative-Invoicing-Handbook.pdf

This guide tells you what to do about "legal blackmail" from companies such as ACS:Law.

Jnelhams

If you search the net long enough you eventually find this list, for obvious reasons I can not post any of the actual details, but on the list is a RAF Base in North West London !!!

The details listed are quite astounding, and clearly this law firm will be no more very soon, judging by the data I saw. If you are going to take private legal action, then I am sure searching this info out on the web will be very useful evidence in Court, and complaints to the Law Society should also be lodged, as this is bad.

Ignoring the debate on copyright, how can in today's wifi world can anyone prove for certain who is using your connection? You would not be convicted for murder, because someone broken in to your home and used your cutlery while you were out shopping??

iamcornholio

I've just checked local postcodes and the popular titles near me are "Secret garden sex" for the married ladies, and "Party Babes" for the blokes

The emails have been put online in a virtural email client, but access is choppy due to high server requests!

Am I allowed to link?

sirmarcus

Hi OP and others,

The following article http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/09/amounts-to-blackmail-inside-a-p2p-settlement-letter-factory.ars/ may help if you have received a letter from ACS.

In particular, please refer to page 3 of the article, where it advises that ACS have never taken anyone to court to get money. The reasons are it would be very difficult to prove that the accused has actually downloaded anything (I have worked in IT for over 20 years and know that WIFI is very unsecure and so it is easy for someone to get/clone your IP address. Worms/viruses would also be a reasonable defense). Please remember that the onus is on ACS to prove that you are guilty, which I doubt they would be able or willing to do. In the unlikely event that ACS would win, please also note that going to court would net them very little money and certainly not the money requested in their letters.

I hate companies that obtain monies by threatening people and so I hope that ACS gets fined £500k by the Information Commissioner due to their non-compliance with the DPA. Hopefully they will fold up as a result of this. I also see that SKY and PLUSnet are refusing to do business with ACS until they get their house in order. I also doubt whether any of the other ISPs or copyright companies will continue to do business with them or want to start doing business with them; due to the reputational damage to ACS and themselves.

For info, their website at http://www.acs-law.org.uk/index.php is also now not functioning.

I hope this helps.

kevanf1

I wonder how many perfectly legal torrent site users have had claims made against them? The torrents are used by many people to download large Linux, BSD and other operating system files together with other open source software.

Here's something interesting too. Why is is illegal to download a film from a torrent site and watch it (not pass it on mind) but no illegal (grey area though) to record that very same film in HD on a HD recorder off the tv?

Take care.

Kevan (who doesn't use torrents because he doesn't like them)

Chimpofdoom

kevanf1 wrote: »

I wonder how many perfectly legal torrent site users have had claims made against them? The torrents are used by many people to download large Linux, BSD and other operating system files together with other open source software.

Here's something interesting too. Why is is illegal to download a film from a torrent site and watch it (not pass it on mind) but no illegal (grey area though) to record that very same film in HD on a HD recorder off the tv?

Take care.

Kevan (who doesn't use torrents because he doesn't like them)

It's one of those infamous grey areas. It's similar to when you could copy a CD onto a cassette. Of course the difference is how prolific it is.

One of the main arguments why people torrent is best summed up by this... clicky

In some aspect I agree, DRM is annoying, if the studio's/TV stations started offering DRM free video downloads at a reasonable price I guess more people would do it. Of course you probably would get people who would still pirate.

Anyway.. we've sidetracked from this thread :rotfl: