UK Lawyers Video Game Piracy Shakedown Catching Plenty Of Innocent Bystanders
from the this-is-what-we-call-a-shakedown dept
Last time we checked in with UK law firm Davenport Lyons, they were trying to set up a shakedown process where they threatened to sue as many people as possible for allegedly sharing a video game. Despite some lofty talk by Davenport Lyons, it was quite clear from the beginning that this never had anything to do with copyright. It was just a straight up shakedown. The firm would send threatening letters claiming that it had evidence (even if it did not) and then demand a settlement fee be paid to avoid an actual lawsuit. It's difficult to see how or why that should be legal.The firm was aided in its quest by drastically exaggerating a legal "win" in one of these cases. The win was because it was a default judgment. The woman that was accused of file sharing did not show up in court, and the court had no choice but to rule against her. Yet, to hear Davenport Lyons tell it, you might be lead to believe that a full blown court case occurred, with a full defense of the actions, and the woman lost.
A lawyer in the UK who was disgusted by this practice, Michael Coyle, has offered to defend as many innocent recipients of the shakedown letter as possible, and now the press is reporting he's already pursuing seventy cases of innocent people being falsely accused (and has heard from hundreds more). The article profiles one such case, where a couple (aged 54 and 66) were accused of sharing a car racing game. The only problem? They have no video games on their computer, nor any file sharing software (and they didn't even know what it was until they got the threatening letter).
Even more ridiculous? They wrote to Davenport Lyons three times without any response. It was only once a magazine picked up their story that Davenport Lyons and Atari dropped the threat. It's about time that the press shines a light on these practices, which clearly have little to do with protecting the rights of copyright holders, and plenty to do with a new, highly questionable, revenue stream that some might call "extortion."
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Filed Under: file sharing, pre-settlement letters, uk
Companies: atari, davenport lyons
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How can you call it anything else.
me money I'm not entitled to. What other name fits
so well as extortion?
If anyone but a lawyer tried that they'd be in jail.
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No more rights, just privileged
If you believe all men are created equal and that such a truth is self-evident, then you do not privilege anyone above anyone else, even publishers above the public.
End the inegalitarian privilege. Abolish copyright.
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been there
A few days later I got letters from lawyers from the movie studios threatening to sue if I didn't mail them all means that I have to create bootlegged DVDs including a printer, my entire PC and all blank media.
It was a total shake down based on nothing other than me selling the fake boxset. I told them to screw off and luckily, never heard from them again.
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Scam
Where is the DOJ or equivalent ? Why are they not stopping this sort of crap.
Has the RIAA patented this business model ?
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Default Jugement?
http://torrentfreak.com/uk-game-piracy-the-propaganda-the-evidence-and-the-damages-080821/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7568642.stm
It should also be noted that trackers like the Pirate Bay deliberately pollute the IP pools with fake addresses to hinder this sort of legal action, but its not clear if that was responsible for this particular mistake.
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Unique IPs?
"their IP address - the unique numbers which identify a particular computer."
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Business Model
2) Obtain associated name and street addr from ISP.
3) Mail letter threatening legal action unless settlement payment is made.
4) PROFIT !!!
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Youve got to pay to play
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Re: Business Model
1) Get IP Addr from random number generator.
2) Obtain associated name and street addr from ISP.
3) Mail letter threatening legal action unless settlement payment is made.
4) ???
5) PROFIT !!!
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Re: Business Model
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Re: Business Model
5) Repeat
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1) Get IP Addr from random number generator.
2) Obtain associated name and street addr from ISP.
3) Mail letter threatening legal action unless settlement payment is made.
4) Harass and embarrass
5) Collect money
6) MAKE PROFIT !!!
7) Stomp on the defendants
8) Rinse
9) Repeat
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Re: No more rights, just privileged
All men are created equally, no where does it say they will forever remain so.
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Cue the Godfather theme music....
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Re:
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Davenport Lyons
This is crazy, their letter was very demanding and i was almost tempted to pay just to get this firm off my back then it occured to me, if i pay for this one how many more wiil there be as i know these people who sell pirated material download multiple files sometimes on more than one machine.
I will just have to wait and see.:(
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Not because they actually committed an offence.
If you have not done anything wrong then you do not and should not pay them a penny. Why would you?!
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davenport lyons
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