UK ISPs Refusing To Hand Over Subscriber Data To Pre-Settlement Lawyers Due To ACS:Law Data Leaks
from the oh,-now-they-decide-this? dept
The fallout from the ACS:Law email leak continues. Law firm Gallant Macmillan, who only recently jumped into the pre-settlement shakedown game, went to court this week to seek the names of various people it wanted to send such letters to and UK ISPs BT and Plusnet -- who had previously cooperated with such requests -- refused to hand over the information, citing the privacy issues raised by the fact that ACS:Law did not properly store and privatize the information it received on subscribers. Of course, it's a bit weak to wait until now to make this complaint. These ISPs should have been standing up for their users from the beginning. Still, better late than never.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: pre-settlement, privacy, uk
Companies: acs:law, bt, gallant macmillan, plusnet
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We can hope that ISPs get badly burned.
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Re: We can hope that ISPs get badly burned.
That would be a public relations nightmare for the ISP.
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Re: We can hope that ISPs get badly burned.
Its been an interesting few weeks though - and hopefully will result in putting an end to these "Pay us or else" mass litigation campaigns. So far ACS:Law appears to have fallen, the Gallant Macmillan website is still down, the Ministry of Sound website is still down - people are now starting to take notice!
Hopefully BT / Plusnet have learnt their own lessons in this fiasco - BT are likely to get fined for breach of a court order as well as transmitting personal details unencrypted via email. BSkyB have somehow managed to keep extremely quiet through all of this - but have lost the trust and sympathy of thousands in the process. How much financial harm has / will it do them? Time will tell.
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Re: Re: We can hope that ISPs get badly burned.
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@4
they took money its in the documents "client"
Also tons of them IP trolls in the USA are following suit and doing the same thing
slyck.com have a look
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@rabbit80 it's only my opinion but I think that if 3 strikes become law in the US (G-d forbid), you'll see the RIAA going back to demanding people be kicked out of the internet with no trial. I think it was getting too expensive and ineffective, but the law would definitively change that.
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