Have you received a letter from Davenport Lyons or ACS?

Trouble is until someone prominent gets one of these letters and decides to challenge it very publicly then it's just not going to be acknowledged by those who should be sorting out the whole business of copyright and the internet.

At present it seems that Government behaves like the 3 wise monkeys of hear and see and do nothing.

[Sirius]

And soon VM will have if they wish to use it a means to make this sort of money from equipment they are installing

[lymmranger]

well the plot thickens.....

ACS have changed tactics again and are currently "including" a questionaire for their victims to complete! This seems to be included in their second letter and apparently is to be done within 7 days or else!

Clearly this is yet another "scare" tactic, however be aware that it`s 7 day deadline breaches Pre-Action Conduct and you should log another (seperate) complaint with the SRA.

It goes without saying not to complete said questionaire and to stick to your simple "I did not do it" response. Do not furnish them with any additional information - they will only use it against you!

...more advice over at "www.beingthreatened.com"

[BenMcr]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...ng-allegations

A leading law firm is being investigated over claims that it bullied and harassed hundreds of people wrongly accused of illegal filesharing.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority, an industry watchdog, said it is investigating a complaint brought against Davenport Lyons, the London-based solicitors' firm that has led a number of prosecutions against illegal filesharers.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Some of the Lords have said some rather choice things about these schemes while debating the Digital Economy Bill:

http://freakbits.com/uk-lord-provide...t-schemes-0302

http://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-...-lords-100128/

http://torrentfreak.com/digital-econ...hasers-091208/

[Ravenheart]

Davenport Lyons solicitors accused over "Bully Boy" tactics

http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/two...-bully-tactics

[Tezcatlipoca]

Originally Posted by Ravenheart

Davenport Lyons solicitors accused over "Bully Boy" tactics

http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/two...-bully-tactics

Excellent

Originally Posted by lawgazette.co.uk

Mark Stephens, a partner at Stephens Finers Innocent who is representing the two solicitors involved, rejected the consumer group’s allegations. He said Davenport Lyons has a long tradition of protecting the rights of creators, and its methodology for handling illegal file-sharing cases conforms to industry best practice, and has been adopted in the Digital Economy Bill currently going through parliament.

Industry best practice? Digital Economy Bill?

Perhaps Mr Stephens should read up on the the rather negative comments made about these "pay up or else schemes" in the DEB debates in the House of Lords.

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/...+lyons#g1304.0

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/...-03-01a.1255.0

"Digital Economy Bill: Lords Want To Stamp Out Piracy Chasers"

"UK Lord Provides Overview of File-Sharing Threat Schemes"

"Anti-Piracy Scheme “A Scam & Legal Blackmail” Say UK Lords"

Originally Posted by lawgazette.co.uk

Stephens said it was not correct to say the solicitors’ conduct was inappropriate in the manner alleged by Which?, adding that Davenport Lyons has a 100% success rate for the illegal file-sharing cases that it has taken to court.

Hmm. AFAIK, the only reason they have a 100% success rate is because they only ever initiated court action against non-responders, & so always won by default...

[Kymmy]

O2 have now had a go at DL:ACS

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8570913.stm

[lymmranger]

It seems possible that finally the ISP`s are starting to get nervous!

.....after all they have all rolled over far too easily - Of course I am sure that this has nothing at all to do with the huge income (they all get a fee per IP address between £12 - £60 each) they have all happily "banked" is it? (course not -I reckon BT have taken approx £1million alone and they are the cheapest @ approx £12 each IP address)

All of the law firms practising this business model write in advance to the ISP anouncing their intention to apply for an NPO and asking them not to oppose it. Any that oppose it are "dropped" from the application. So far only Talk Talk have done so, but maybe O2 will be the next and after that.........

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by lymmranger

.....after all they have all rolled over far too easily - Of course I am sure that this has nothing at all to do with the huge income (they all get a fee per IP address between £12 - £60 each) they have all happily "banked" is it? (course not -I reckon BT have taken approx £1million alone and they are the cheapest @ approx £12 each IP address)

What on earth are you on about? ACS:Law have applied to the courts for the subscriber information.

If the ISPs refused to then provide that information they are breaking the law

[lymmranger]

Errrrr - yes they have but thats not the full story....

It is a known fact (certainly with ACS) that they wrote to all the ISP`s BEFORE they applied to the court for the NPO, informing them of their intention. Further they asked would the application be "opposed". TalkTalk said that they would and were subsequently dropped from the NPO application. None of the other ISP`s have (as yet) objected.

A second fact is that the ISP`s charge/levy a fee for supplying the account holder details - this fee varies from ISP to ISP and is a fee per IP address and for example BT charge roughly £12 I am given to understand that this fee can be as high as £57!

The NPO hearings on the whole are a rubber stamping exercise as no one opposes them

All of the above info is easily verified by searching the various forums (particularly Slyk and Beingthreatened) and in particular reading the many scanned documents which handily include this information. TBI even "picked on BT" because they never oppose NPO orders (also on the scanned info available)

My post was not intended to inflame or provoke an argument but to point out that since this whole debacle started the ISP`s have been enjoying a "nice little earner" collecting their fees for complying to a court order they couldnt even be bothered opposing.

edit - try this - http://redacted.speedyb.co.uk/ - look at Page 4/9 item (ii) (thanks to www.beingthreatened.com) - and thats just one

[brundles]

Looks like ACS don't like people talking about their way of doing things.

There's quite a few forums that they've been talked about on, but I wonder how many will get threats like this.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by brundles

Looks like ACS don't like people talking about their way of doing things.

There's quite a few forums that they've been talked about on, but I wonder how many will get threats like this.

That is hilarious

I look forward to their legal threats being sent to us

btw if any ACS employees are reading this, the email address to send your laughable threats to is team @cableforum.co.uk

[NoKnowledge]

Originally Posted by brundles

Looks like ACS don't like people talking about their way of doing things.

There's quite a few forums that they've been talked about on, but I wonder how many will get threats like this.

Ha-Ha, love it

It's hard to respond to someone who knows the laws so well but Slyck deserve credit especially for citing several landmark cases.

[cook1984]

ACS:Law clearly don't understand the internets:

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/10023/d...ortion_letter/

Sending letters to Wikileaks is a pretty sure way of getting them published. They seem to be under the impression that Wikileaks is some kind of forum, and despite it not being in the UK or subject to UK law tried to use UK copyright to stop the publication of their initial letter which only served to have their second letter published too.

Give them enough rope and they will hang themselves.