Profitable 'Pay Us Or We'll Sue You For File Sharing' Scheme About To Send 30,000 More Letters
from the and-here-we-go-again dept
Remember ACS:Law? The shakedown organization that appears to have taken over where Davenport Lyons left off (including using some of the identical documents), and who has "partnered" with DigiProtect, the company that gleefully admits that it purposely puts files on file sharing networks just to collect the IP addresses of anyone who downloads, is asking for the identifying info on 30,000 UK users. To put that in perspective, in the years long campaign by the RIAA to sue people for file sharing, they apparently requested info on about 35,000 IP addresses. Of course, when spreading such a big net, it's no surprise that tons of innocent people get caught in it. But that's really of little concern, since no real lawsuits have been filed. They're just hoping a bunch of people feel that it's easier to pay up. It's not about stopping piracy or getting people to buy -- it's about shaking people down for as much money as possible.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: demand letters, file sharing, uk
Companies: acs law, digiprotect
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It's worth clicking through to the TF article
It is worth noting that ISP account holders are not liable for copyright infringement carried out on his/her connection if a) they did not carry it out themselves or b) did not authorize any infringement. If they did neither they can simply write back to ACS:Law explaining that the accusation against them has been made in error.
Furthermore, if the account holder does not know who did carry out the infringement, they should state in their reply that is the case. It is then up to ACS:Law to find the real infringer based on their evidence they hold. This is impossible for them without the account holder pointing the finger.
Stay sharp, kids.
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everyone refuse
YUP HOLLYWOOD TERRORISM STRIKES AGAIN
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Contrary to what companies like Digiprotect might think, file sharing is *NOT* against the law. Copyright infringement is... but sharing files that you have permission from the copyright holder to share isn't copyright infringement.
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Re:
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Call it what it is: LawSpam
30,000 requests x 2% bending-to-the-will x $2000 per settlement = $1,200,000
And that's without really having to do any work.
I'd also wager that the settlement-without-question rate is much higher, given the enormous costs to fight the accusation, despite innocence or guilt.
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What is the definition of extortion in the US?
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Stupid system
Send out massive bulk snail mail (widely dispersed across the country as possible) claiming some copyright infringement (being really vague about the infringement on some copyright your bogus company actually does own)... and request a small amount (less than $500) or imply they will face full legal action potentially costing thousands of dollars (no need to specify which party).
If anyone contests it then drop them... claim it was your mistake and apologize for the error (hell even you even offer $5-$10 gift certificate for your error if your getting lost of people to pay up).
Most people have infringed on some copyright so some people will pay (easy to determine the threshold limit by average household income in a given postal code).
If you mail drop to 1 million homes (say at the outrageous cost of $1 million to generate the letters and pay for postage). Asking for an average of $200. Then you just need 0.5% to pay up to break even. In reality you will most likely get 10-20% pay up. At 10% you net $20,000,000.
See the problem with allowing fishing expeditions... very easy for a company to claim an error and never actually purse legal action. The current system is in favor of the company.
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Extortion?
Greed rules.
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Entrapment only works if the person asking you to do something illegal is a cop in there official standing. IE a cop sees you sleeping in the back of your car, orders you to move your car, then pulls you over for drunk driving, the cop just ordered you to brake a law (drunk driving) because he knew you were drunk when he told you to do something you would not normally have done.
Thats the sad reality, you can aways remind people you can sue them in court, that is not extortion (yet).
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Business Letter:
We caught you on this IP.
We "can" pursue charges
Or we "can" settle out of court.
HMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
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Re:
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SCENE ONLY RELEASES
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Boycott all Corporate Studios
You will not miss any films/music as you can buy them used.Save money that way and corporate asses do not get a dime out of the sale.
you can also help local stores out by buying used in your town.
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I am surprised...
If I recieved spam telling me I was infringing and needed to send money to prevent lawsuits, I might actually listen.
Much more convincing than the prince of Niger
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Mafia
Pay up or we will take your house, your car, your well-fare check, your social security check and anything else their filthy cheating minds can conjure up.
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ACS LAW
Lots of useful info on the consumer website mentioned and a petition against the Digital Rights Bill (which in its present form will make things worse) on the No. 10 website.
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/dontdisconnectus/
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