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London Lawyers Demand £600 For One Game

Posted by kdawson on from the tip-of-the-iceburg dept.

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.'"

7 of 404 comments (clear)

  1. Failure on Postage? by autocracy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would call that horribly ineffective service. I hope the court would agree. You should never pay to know you're sued ;)

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    SIG: HUP
    1. Re:Failure on Postage? by MoonBuggy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I would absolutely agree that they've demonstrated incompetence at best, and have wilfully wasted time before the deadline at worst - to me this throws into question a lot of things about their case. Where did the evidence come from, for example? I've actually been wondering about that for a while when people are found to have 'x' infringing content on their machine; how do the lawyers know what you have downloaded? At what level are they monitoring us, and who are they cooperating with to do so?

    2. Re:Failure on Postage? by somersault · · Score: 5, Funny

      Obligatory ;)

      "'...You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them had you? I mean like actually telling anyone or anything.'
      'But the plans were on display...'
      'On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.'
      'That's the display department.'
      'With a torch.'
      'Ah, well the lights had probably gone.'
      'So had the stairs.'
      'But look you found the notice didn't you?'
      'Yes,' said Arthur, 'yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying "Beware of The Leopard".'"

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      which is totally what she said
  2. Re:Here's your warning: by diskofish · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you read the article, the reader claims he never downloaded the game in the first place, nor can he find an evidence of it.

  3. What proof by Karem+Lore · · Score: 5, Informative

    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

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    When all is said and done, nothing changes...
  4. Re:Slashdot.co.uk? by iapetus · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is Slashdot. News for nerds. Don't multiply by two - just bitshift left by one.

    --
    ++ Say to Elrond "Hello.".
    Elrond says "No.". Elrond gives you some lunch.
  5. Re:Tell them this by eldorel · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yeah, but you can go to the dealership and take the Ferrari for a test drive. If they don't have a demo available, I'm not paying unless word of mouth makes it seem worth it.

    I have pirated games to try them, and if they are good, I buy them. Usually multiple copies for myself and my friends. (We have weekly lan parties, and I supply the extra systems for new people)

    I'm not about to buy 4 copies of a game, and have my friends buy copies, just to discover that the multiplayer sucks horribly.
    As a matter of fact, I purchased a game just a few weeks ago that played great up until we hit 3 players on the network, then the game bogged down and lagged itself to death. Fortunately, I had only purchased the one copy, and no-cd cracked it on the other systems for testing.

    Software retailers don't take games back. I'm not gambling $100+ on something that I can easily test out first.