Slashdot Mirror
London Lawyers Demand £600 For One Game
Barence writes "A PC Pro reader has received a demand for a £600 out-of-court settlement from lawyers claiming to have forensic evidence that he illegally downloaded a PC game on BitTorrent. The law firm, Davenport Lyons, is acting on the behalf of German games distributor Zuxxez, creator of the game in question, Two Worlds. The PC Pro reader was given no prior warning to stop file sharing, unlike the usual 'three strikes and you're out' approach adopted by the music industry. The reader says, 'To add insult to injury it [Davenport Lyons] didn't pay enough postage on the letter and I had to collect it from the sorting office at a cost of £1.30. This also used up most of the two weeks that it allowed for a response.'"
I have moderator points, but there's no option for 'wrong'.
The current exchange rate is almost US$2 per 1 british pound. At the current exchange rate, it'd be $1158.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
At today's exchange rates, £600 is about $1,173.15. How old are your figures?
Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
Everything I've read about both Davenport Lyons and Zuxxez makes them look pretty shady since they are using MAFIAA tactics to extort money from people, many of whom are innocent but their guilty until proven innocent outlook doesn't help. They went after 500 people last year for that stupid pinball game, and even went so far as to ask people for details/documentation about their computers and routers, all outside of court mind you, so it's another story of IP renegades run amuck.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. indymedia
I would ask them for their forensic evidence it was you that downloaded the game. I would also request your ISP for the information that they provided to the company against the Data Protection Act and politely inform them that if they did provide this information then they would be next in line for divulging your personal details. I would request from the lawyers copies of all the details provided by your ISP. I would also be informing them that their collection and use of your personal details without your approval will be met by even more stringent regulations under British law. I would also contact the Citizen's Advice Bureau to discuss with them how you should proceed and for them to put you in touch with a lawyer/association. At the brunt of this, you have to pay for your ISP to have provided the information. This means that your ISP charged for providing them the information, ergo they sold the information to a third-party. I would have their necks if my ISP did this. Karem
When all is said and done, nothing changes...
Reading the details of the homeless case shows that they tried (inadequately and improperly) to serve him when he was homeless; but that the alleged infringement occurred while he was living at the address they tried to use to contact him.
1. The lawyer, at least according to the summary, is from London. He's not posting from overseas.
2. This "recent change" was well over a year ago.
3. The lawyer is a lawyer. (Well, in UK terms a solicitor, but it amounts to the same thing). They send things of varying size by post all the time. The idea that they're not aware of the rules regarding how much postage has to be paid is for all practical purposes unthinkable. If they are aware, they intentionally screwed up so they're malicious. If they're not aware, that means they don't know how much they have to pay to post any given set of documents. Seeing as these rules have been in place for some time and a large chunk of their job involves posting documents, I think it's fair to describe such ignorance as constituting incompetence.