ACS:Law copyright file sharing claims, Gallant Macmillan - and probably some others along the way...

[Jamuir]

To hopefully try and clear something up. With regards to MOS and any of theirs' or other compilation albums. These companies take out what is referred to as a mechanical copyright. They basically pay for the priveledge of producing a compilation album. The costs involved are something like cost per track + quantity created (the more you make the better the discount). So they will pay someone normally MCPS who then distribute these charges for tracks to the copyright holders. MOS or who ever makes these compilations ( Now 1 - 78 etc) then get to keep all the money they then make. The album is sold with their "Trade Name" like MOS 80's blah blah in order to make money off of their copyrighted album name. Let's just call it Speculative Track Selection !!

 

Thanks for this, however if I may speculate myself ...

Somebody decides they are going to download Vienna by Ultravox illegally. They go onto a torrent site, search Vienna by Ultravox and it brings up hundreds of different torrents all containing this track. One of them has the Ministry of Sounds name on it. Does MOS 'own' the copyright to all the other versions which appear on Greatest Hits,Vienna (orig album) etc or just the one which appears on a torrent with MOS's name on it.

[floppydog]

Ok should someone be silly enough to download Vienna as you have stated or any other torrent. The copyright for that particular track will belong to whoever compiled that particular compilation, either Ultravox themselves or MOS or HITS etc etc.

[Jamuir]

Ok should someone be silly enough to download Vienna as you have stated or any other torrent. The copyright for that particular track will belong to whoever compiled that particular compilation, either Ultravox themselves or MOS or HITS etc etc.

 

Just trying to point out what in my opinion is the ridiculous stance of MOS in relation to this compilation given the scale of downloading. Now if it was original material created by MOS or the original 80s artist then Id understand it.

[seymourtitty]

Do not correspond to these people via phone. Constuct a good denial letter.

 

The ip address they have quoted is the one that is allocated to your phone number by your isp but why they send letters with 2 different ips is a mystery and puts further evidence to tell us that they dont really know what they are doing.

 

Every device that you have in your house that connect wirelessly ie a wii, other laptops etc will all have a different internal ip address's.

 

Phone the SRA asap and report them Solicitors Regulation Authority - Contact us

 

They are already under investigation.....

I phoned them the other day and this is what the sra told me.

 

 

Great thanks for that. I was frantically worrying, coming up with ways of how I could raise £700 :x

 

Will call SRA tomorrow and explain the position...still quite worrying I think

[floppydog]

It really is this simple - They have spent money in creating the compilation, as far as they are concerned they expect to make a certain amount of £££ from these albums. If it was myself that had created the album I would expect to get a return on it. But also take into consideration this fact - anytime that compilation is played on air they will get a renumeration for it, but also the original artists as well. The whole music industry is about making money, talent may be discovered along the way but if you consider how much is made through copyright, sheet music, air play, concerts etc etc - it really is a goose laying the golden egg. No one but no one in the industry wants to loose money, what they should consider is pricing it in such a way that everyone can afford it. If they asked you to pay £ 52.00 a year to stream any track(s) from any album(s) unlimited plaing that you wanted you would, but they won't as they can make more money by charging £ 8.00 - £ 15.99 per album. Then again consider that 4 - 6 months after the initial release of an album it normally ends up the bargain buckets of Tesco, Asda,Sainsbury's etc....you can bet that they are not losing money selling them at that price. Rant almost over - ask yourself this, how much does the actual person who wrote the song that topped the charts actually gets from all this speculative invoicing scheme ??? I do not have a clue but I am guessing it is the records companies who are making it and the actual artists are getting a few mouldy crumbs.

[floppydog]

Oh and the lawyers may make a few quid as well LOL!!!!

[Jamuir]

lol

 

If Vienna is played on air does MOS know its on their compilation

[floppydog]

@jamuir - by law all radio companies must produce their playlists and from what album / single was involved. I think that you will find that when it comes to MOS don't get a lot for their compilations, only the physical sales.

[floppydog]

Can all newbies & those who do not read all of the posts please remember that the only information these people have on you is the information that they receive from your ISP via the (questionable) Norwich Pharmacal Order from the court. This basically is the name of the account holder on the ISP and their address. It does not include you e mail address, your home or mobile telephone number, your marital status, your income, sexual persuation, your inside leg measurement or bugger all. Remember if you wish to call them you probably will give them your telephone number, if you e mail them they will then have an e mail address where they can contact you. They have no information on you except those that the ISP had to give them. They are constantly on the look out to trap you into giving them anything you are willing to give up. A recorded delivery reply (LOD) is all that is require. Just remember that anything that you are willing to give them may very well come back to bite you in the rear end.

Always ensure that your brain is working before you engage your mouth or writing hands.

[stupiditto]

Can all newbies & those who do not read all of the posts please remember that the only information these people have on you is the information that they receive from your ISP via the (questionable) Norwich Pharmacal Order from the court. This basically is the name of the account holder on the ISP and their address. It does not include you e mail address, your home or mobile telephone number, your marital status, your income, sexual persuation, your inside leg measurement or bugger all. Remember if you wish to call them you probably will give them your telephone number, if you e mail them they will then have an e mail address where they can contact you. They have no information on you except those that the ISP had to give them. They are constantly on the look out to trap you into giving them anything you are willing to give up. A recorded delivery reply (LOD) is all that is require. Just remember that anything that you are willing to give them may very well come back to bite you in the rear end.

Always ensure that your brain is working before you engage your mouth or writing hands.

 

Im more annoyed really. LOD will be going off soon just making them stew a bit..

[seymourtitty]

hi floppydog

 

thanks for that...so a recorded delivery reply for each of my two letters would suffice at this stage? Even though the file may or may not be on my laptop?

[floppydog]

Just because they send you a letter by second class pigeon post does not prove you did not get it. They assume that because they have send it by Royal Mail and have a list of it then you cannot say you did not get it. I only say Recorded Delivery because you can then prove you sent something back to them. With regards to wether or not you have any files on your computer that you should or should not have is something that you would know. All I can say is if like me you did not do it, then by all means send a LOD. If however you did do it, try and make a more sensible offer than they are trying to extort from you. We are all on this site trying to offer you some guidance, if you are in the crapper so to speak I think that we would all recommend that you seek professional help.

[seymourtitty]

Fair enough. But I can't understand why I had two letters, quoting different IP addresses, saying that I'd downloaded the same album. This, I know for a fact, didnt happen

[captain-123]

Great thanks for that. I was frantically worrying, coming up with ways of how I could raise £700 :x

 

Will call SRA tomorrow and explain the position...still quite worrying I think

 

 

Can I ask is this two letters for the same song? If so even if you had done it why would you have to pay twice just because your IP address had changed?

 

Not say you have done it just find this situation even stranger.

[seymourtitty]

Can I ask is this two letters for the same song? If so even if you had done it why would you have to pay twice just because your IP address had changed?

 

Not say you have done it just find this situation even stranger.

 

It is for exactly the same album - the only differences are that the IP addresses are different, and the time of the alleged offence - about a week apart (2nd Dec '09, 2nd Jan '10)

 

Both letters asking for £375/£50

 

Just spoke to SRA now - they said to write to them with a copy of the letter, and in the meantime, write a LOD.

[stupiditto]

Just because they send you a letter by second class pigeon post does not prove you did not get it. They assume that because they have send it by Royal Mail and have a list of it then you cannot say you did not get it. I only say Recorded Delivery because you can then prove you sent something back to them. With regards to wether or not you have any files on your computer that you should or should not have is something that you would know. All I can say is if like me you did not do it, then by all means send a LOD. If however you did do it, try and make a more sensible offer than they are trying to extort from you. We are all on this site trying to offer you some guidance, if you are in the crapper so to speak I think that we would all recommend that you seek professional help.

 

Let me tell you - I know Royal Mail quite well and I know the only real way to get a letter securely to its destination is to send it Special Delivery.

 

I should have had a letter Saturday or Today at the latest and still haven't got it and that was done internally lol

 

So for some saying I didn't receive the letter I think they can actually say this - Just because they sent the letter doesn't mean it got to the correct address or even got out for delivery at all. How ever if these people sent them recorded they would have at least had some tracking on them.

[kaminskis]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_sharing

 

 

check this out.......

[White-Dragon]

I have just phoned and complained to the SRA about gallant Macmillan they also told me they have recieved alot of complaints about them and the investigation is on going

[Goldy001]

Revolving doors at Gallant Macmillan Received a letter from ACS LAW?

 

And this, seems there's only two of them in there office?!

All those LOD's, gonna take some time to get through

[kaminskis]

www.ContactLaw.co.uk/Employment

 

 

 

check this out...........

[Goldy001]

Why would MOS even hire a solicitors like this, very strange!

[captain-123]

It is for exactly the same album - the only differences are that the IP addresses are different, and the time of the alleged offence - about a week apart (2nd Dec '09, 2nd Jan '10)

 

Both letters asking for £375/£50

 

Just spoke to SRA now - they said to write to them with a copy of the letter, and in the meantime, write a LOD.

 

 

I wonder if this is just a mail merge where by they are just printed and sent without any real checking involved and because your IP changed it was essentially two different colums in an excel spreadsheet.

 

While it is not relevant if you haven't done it, it doesn't seem to make sense to have two claims for the same album. If that was the case if your ip changed 10 - 20 times which is not under any customer control would you have 10 - 20 claims?

 

Just thinking about the situation really

[seymourtitty]

yes it does smack of bad organisation at best, and downright incompetence at worst.

[Shaggy123]

If the file is on my laptop, am I still eligible to send a LOD?

 

Not if you did what they are saying.

[Shaggy123]

Im more annoyed really. LOD will be going off soon just making them stew a bit..

 

I very much doubt they'll be stewing. They'll not have given it a 2nd thought. They'll have just logged who they sent letters to and will check at a later date who has replied and who hasn't and act accordingly.