UK File-Sharing Lawyers ACS:Law Shut Up Shop Ahead of Court

nk497 writes "Controversial legal firm ACS Law and its sole file-sharing client Media CAT have shut down their businesses, days before a ruling is due in a case they brought to the UK Patent Court. ACS Law is infamous for sending out letters to alleged illegal file sharers, demanding payment and threatening law suits. Now that ACS has a case before a judge, it's trying to drop the cases, and has now completely closed its doors. The defendants' lawyers are trying to keep the case going, in order to be able to claim back costs." That sounds right in line with other recent ACS happenings, from getting upbraided by a judge to being blacklisted by an ISP, and even putting the brakes on the file-sharing cases themselves.

Comments

The slippery bastards

[Anonymous Coward]

They'll be back under a new name in no time. Immoral scum of the earth. The lawyers concerned should be disbarred, but that won't ever happen, because judges are just lawyers who got a promotion, and they look after their own.

Re:The slippery bastards

[Mathinker]

> and they look after their own.

If they believe the conduct of these lawyers will be publicized enough to reflect on their own reputation or the reputation of the legal system itself, there is a chance they'll sanction / disbar them anyway.

Re:The slippery bastards

[Spad]

I don't know, the judge in this case seemed pretty pissed off at the way ACS:Law have been behaving and their attempts to drop cases and close their business aren't going to help endear them to him.

Bear in mind that they're also being investigated by pretty much every legal regulatory body and consumer protection organisation in the UK, not just as ACS:Law but also Andrew Crossley himself, so there's still a good chance they won't get away with it.

Re:The slippery bastards

[_Shad0w_]

I'm inclined to agree, the judge in question is not exactly inexperienced and is a specialist in the area. They are in fact "Specialist Circuit Judge, Judge of the Patents County Court and Chairman of the Copyright Tribunal Appointments", they're also a QC.

I get the feeling, from what I've read, that he is distinctly unimpressed and has little interest in allowing them get out judicial oversight; he's actually quoted as saying, "I want to tell you that I am not happy. I am getting the impression with every twist and turn since I started looking at these cases that there is a desire to avoid any judicial scrutiny,"

Re:The slippery bastards

[WrongSizeGlass]

> and they look after their own.

Gotta be more specific. Trial lawyers love eating their own. Copyright lawyers love the low hanging meat someone is smoking / drying. Patent lawyers love eating things that are at least 10x bigger than themselves. Tax lawyers eat anything they want. Personal injury lawyers love eating the chewed off legs left in traps.

Gee, thanks. With all this talk about eating it seems I'm hungry again.

Re:The slippery bastards

[WrongSizeGlass]

I don't know about the 'reputation' of the legal system in the UK, but here in the US it's so tarnished there isn't much to reflect any more. I guess I could say the same thing about most of our press, too.

Re:The slippery bastards

[sortius_nod]

Unfortunately in the US you can't get much lower than your legal system. In the UK there's still the idea that the law protects citizens, not enables business to harm citizens.

Even here in Australia the courts are very careful not to ruin the credibility of the courts as this would deteriorate people's perception of law. I have a feeling ACS:Law bit off more than they could chew and realise they'd lose the cases. I just feel sad for the people who freaked out and paid up.

Re:The slippery bastards

[Mistlefoot]

So can someone "incorporate" a business, pay the $100 yearly fee that your city charges......and then put up a webpage reviewing movies and music, all the while downloading the content via torrents? If you get "caught" with any pirated material you can just close the business and be on with your life. The Corporation did it........not you........

As long as you didn't make much money you could use their strategy of self protection to protect yourself and your $100 a year licence from the city to pirate all day, every day?

The Playing Victim Pattern

[eddy]

I see a pattern wrt fraudsters who go out and tell the press that they suddenly fear for their very lives from the people they've previously felt so good about extorting. This guy is doing it, and Darl McBride was doing it. Same pattern. Both use hyperbole without evidence, and they never contact the authorities, just the press. A press who then, disgustingly, report what the scumbags said verbatim without reflection.

Re:The Playing Victim Pattern

[Spad]

Well to be fair, who would have thought that making essentially unfounded legal threats against people, trying to extort money from them and threatening to "expose" their alleged "illegal" porn downloading in the hope that they'll choose a cash settlement over having their life ruined would upset people in any way?

Are they trying to hide evidence?

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't that highly illegal?
Wouldn't any of us normans end up being screwed so hard for doing stuff like this?
I hope they get what is coming to them. One hell of a scummy law firm.

Next up, we get the RIAA and friends.

Not enough

[JockTroll]

Chase them down without mercy, crush them, destroy their property with fire, raze their houses to the ground, raise piles of wood and combustibles on the grounds where their dwellings were and throw their spouses and offspring upon them, and then set them on fire. Torture them to death, slice their skin off bloody strip by bloody strip and feed them to fire ants. That for a starter, the real fun comes later.

Speculative invoicing

[BSAtHome]

Yes, the new euphemism of the day: Speculative invoicing, a new and innovative form of blackmail.