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Lawyer Banned for Threatening File-Sharers

Posted by Soulskill on from the your-uppance-has-come dept.

S. Hare brings us a report from TorrentFreak about a lawyer working for a Swiss anti-piracy group who was recently given a 6-month ban for her attempts to intimidate file-sharers though letters threatening fines and court fees. Elizabeth Martin demanded 400 Euros each from "hundreds of thousands of file-sharers," and suggested that they would have to face large settlements if they did not comply. The Paris Bar Council took exception to this and instituted the ban. Martin worked for Logistep, a company who has had trouble following laws in the past. "The disciplinary board decided that 'By choosing to reproduce aggressive foreign methods, intended to force payments, the interested party also violated [the code] which specifies that the lawyer cannot unfairly represent a situation or seriousness of threat.' In addition, the lawyer also violated the code by cashing payments into a private account, not the usual dedicated litigation account, known as a 'Carpa'. Martin also refused to reveal how many payments had been received from file-sharers."

5 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Value by y86 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's truely amazing that people continue to support copyright theft here. It's an indection that most Slashdotter's don't actually produce anything of value. I beg to differ.

    Ever heard of Linux? Jackass. Go back under your bridge.
  2. Re:Value by CyberData4 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How does the RIAA know that it's theft? That's the issue many take with them. It's the way they go after people through their ISP's. Which they SHOULDN'T have access to in the first place. But silly me, I always assumed "Innocent until PROVEN guilty" meant just that. My mistake.

  3. Re:Value by TheLink · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, and some of us can keep producing value, not like other people who _apparently_ can only produce value once in their lifetime and so require copyright terms of > 100 years to support them (or long patent terms).

    To the latter bunch I say, go find something you are better at and stop wasting time and resources.

    If the speed of communications has got faster, and people want a faster pace of progress, then the length of all these monopolies should be getting shorter and shorter, not longer and longer. In the old days it takes a long time for a book (or other work) to get from an author to people (takes time for people to get to know about the book, and for payment to reach the author etc). Now I believe it should be much faster if you are doing things right.

    --
  4. Re:6 month ban seems rather lite.... by mboverload · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ONLY A 6 MONTH BAN - WHAT???

    I agree that this SHOULD be grounds for disbarment or worse. Of course, I am not a lawyer but if I used my knowledge of computers to scare payments out of people I would probably go to jail or have a huge fine. Then the company I work for would find out and I would be fired ASAP.

    How is this different? Isn't this some kind of extortion? Someone please clue me in.

  5. Re:From the Summery... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Switzerland has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the world."

    i'm reminded of a joke i was once told. during WW2, hitler spoke to a swiss national saying, "y'know, there are only 500,000 people in your entire country. i've got a million people in my army. what do you think will happen if i just decide to walk right in?" to which the swiss person replied, "well ... i guess we'll have to shoot twice."