File sharing fiasco
A judge has dismissed all 8 file sharing cases brought to court by controversial firm, ACS:Law.
The firm is infamous for firing out thousands of letters to suspected copyright thieves, hoping they will cough up instead of risking court and got its fingers burnt this September when a seemingly unencrypted list of people suspected of sharing porn films was posted online for all to see.
While the firm usually relies on its letter writing campaign to pull in the pounds (and illegal file sharers of course) asking for a couple of hundred quid for an out-of-court settlement, it actually brought 8 people to court in a rare move, TechWatch reported.
Leaving the firm with a lot of egg on its face, judge Birss reportedly dismissed all 8 cases.
The story goes that ACS:Law had tried to get a default judgement, which means that the firm sought to get a verdict against the defendant simply because they had not appeared in court or responded to the summons.
According to TechWatch, some of the people accused of illegal file sharing had filed a defence or there was no proof that a claim had been served.
The judge reportedly said:"The claimant's right to be a claimant at all is somewhat unclear on the face of the pleading. A copyright case can be brought by the owner of copyright or an exclusive licensee but the Particulars of Claim does not allege the claimant is either of those."
"The allegation is that the claimant ‘represents' such persons. There is a plea that the claimant has an agreement with the Rights Owner to identify, pursue and prosecute instances of copyright infringement but no plea that the claimant owns the copyright or has an exclusive licence."
While all the legalese may seem a tad complicated, ACS:Law's actions will no doubt attract undesirable attention again. The firm is still believed to be waiting to hear whether it will suffer a huge fine from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to the tune of half a million pounds for not keeping information about suspected file sharers safe.
There have also been calls to find a new way of hunting down copyright thieves following the data breach and Guardian report that ACS:Law pockets around 40 percent of the settlement payment, with rights holders only receiving between 20 and 30 percent.
