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Game Makers Accusing Innocent People of Piracy In the UK

eldavojohn writes "It's a topic that a lot of game makers like Atari don't want the public hearing: game makers wrongfully accusing clearly innocent people of piracy. From the article, 'According to Michael Coyle, an intellectual property solicitor with law firm Lawdit, more and more people are being wrongly identified as file-sharers. He is pursuing 70 cases of people who claim to be wrongly accused of piracy and has spoken to hundreds of others, he told the BBC.' If only a few are coming forward after receiving extortion letters ('Pay £500 OR ELSE!'), what's the actual number of those out there being wrongfully accused?"

16 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The UK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    It's hilarious to see everyone talk about V for Vendetta every time a story about UK politics turns up. It wasn't even that great a movie, and besides the location, it had nothing to do with UK politics. It was meant to be a story (and not even a great one at that), not a comment on british politics.

    This isn't about British politics, this is about game publishers' frivolous lawsuits. Hopefully if these people aren't lying about the fact they didn't fileshare, they will have some backbone and stand up to these idiots. Then the morons will notice that the loser pays in UK court systems - it's not like the US system where it's better just to pay up.

    Besides, the UK doesn't make such a big deal about being the land of freedom or our constituion (we do have one comprising several documents apparently, but I don't think it's filled with the same types of puppy dogs and sunshine that the US one is), so it isn't so ironic when more Big Brother style stuff is put into place. If we ever get an equivalent to Guantanamo Bay, then I would start complaining and protesting. I don't see how you guys let them get away with that even if it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside that innocent people can be taken there and tortured without trial just in case they want to try to hurt the economy again. The US government has fucked the US population hard up the ass ever since 9/11, taking advantage of people's blindness caused by fear and anger (or perhaps just stupidity).

  2. Re:The UK by lattyware · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Why should all minors suffer just because some are idiots? If some are doing something illegal, you can give them a selective curfew, if not, then they should be allowed to go out whenever they wish.

    --
    -- Lattyware (www.lattyware.co.uk)
  3. e4f. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    it. Do 8ot Share

  4. Re:Lawyers smelt money. by sc4ry4nt · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Sure and I agree (with both the above posts) however I think to take aim at lawyers and say thay they smelt money is not correct. Lawyers aren't trawling the streets looking for new cases to make themselves money, they don't need to! In the UK they make upwards of £500 an hour! It's the government and private companies that are making and forcing these changes that subsequently result in law firms getting money - not the other way around. Makes you wonder why you didn't skip those classes in high school and get better grades so you could have become a lawyer in a top law firm! ;) Now I'm stuck behind a desk as a systems analyst dammit.

  5. Re:The UK by Linker3000 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    "A curfew for kids is actually taking the parents rights away to decide whether their kids are mature enough to be out past 10 pm."

    From experience (I am a school governor) there seem to be fewer and fewer parents that have the intelligence to make that decision. I guess they think their precious snowflakes have been at some extended church meeting when they stagger in sometime past midnight.

    I am not in favour of imposing restrictions, but sometimes you have to wonder whether it's for the good of the children because the parents aren't doing their job properly.

    --
    AT&ROFLMAO
  6. Re:The UK by FridgeFreezer · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The "UK" in V For Vendetta was supposed to be a parallel of the current state of the US, and the "US" of the film was a parallel for (can you guess?) Iraq. Personally I thought it was fairly thinly veiled, but perhaps not...

    --
    There is no music - home taping killed it.
  7. Re:The UK by Fred_A · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    My town, and most others in California, has a curfew for minors, 10:00pm. I've been hassled before walking around passed midnight.

    In lots of places in the US you can be hassled by the local enforcement for just walking, whatever the time and whatever your age.
    Apparently if you aren't in a car, you're a suspect.

    --

    May contain traces of nut.
    Made from the freshest electrons.
  8. Re:The UK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    >Most places have a curfew in the code for minors...

    Make that most places you are aware of. There _are_ places outside the US and UK, you know?

  9. Re:The UK by digitig · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    We have that in parts of the UK too, including where I live. Although Libery (an approximate UK equivalent of the ACLU) has done a good job of challenging the curfew orders, "imminently anticipated bad behaviour" is vague enough that they're effectively still in place.

    --
    Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
  10. Re:The UK by AmiMoJo · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    We have curfews as well, you get one when you get an ASBO. An ASBO is a kind of award given to particularly cool kids that they can show off to their friends, and gives them a free pass to play hide and seek with the authorities.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  11. Re:The UK by digitig · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    out past 10 pm

    9pm for most of the UK curfews.

    --
    Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
  12. mod 0p by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Let'S keep to

  13. Re:The UK by KGIII · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The cinematic version didn't follow the comic entirely but was pretty close. Considering, if you will, that this was authored in the mid 1980's I find it a strange stretch to imagine anything parallel with Iraq. I'm just not seeing it. Care to elaborate?

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  14. Re:The UK by FridgeFreezer · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Meh - I don't do graphic novels if you discount Viz, hence referencing the film. Whether the author intended it or the film just changed the emphasis slightly, I'm sure the US were kicking up the same old shit somewhere else back in the 80's that fits just as well.

    The parallels with BTN and the US news channels, the military curfew, culture of fear etc. are fairly obvious, and the descriptions of the broken "US" in the film being "Godless", full of terrorists, "we should take the country back" etc. seem pretty straight with a lot of the stuff that's been bandied about at various times over Iraq/Iran/Whoever else has our oil.

    --
    There is no music - home taping killed it.
  15. Re:The UK by KGIII · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Interesting. I wonder if, purely to converse really but mostly curiosity, if it is some sort of projection on your part meaning that you're seeing what you're seeing because that's what is current and I read the series in a different time get the idea of power to the people and standing up against oppression. It's a bit of a mental stretch for me but I guess I can see why you'd get those conclusions from the movie though. I'll try watching the DVD again tonight and I'll keep your thinking in mind while I watch it. Thanks. I needed a movie to watch tonight and hadn't yet picked one.

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  16. Re:The UK by El_Muerte_TDS · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    What a minute?
    Did you just say teenagers are worse than sex offenders?!