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

[blashey]

has anyone contacted ministry of sound out of curiosity to see if they are in agreement with gm and their methods of extracting money for them ?

[unclebulgaria67]

i got a letter back from gm declining my offer of £100 and still want £370 i dont know what to do as i stupidly admitted it before i found this site they even have the cheek to give me the option of paying in instalements

should i pay i am at my wits end

 

Yes you should. You have admitted to the debt, so now could be taken to court. Suggest that you offer 50% of the amount as a full & final settlement. In the letter, you should say something like, ' I am uncertain as to whether I have ever downloaded the material you have alleged, but I offer the sum of £185 as full and final settlement, without any admission on my part, that I have had anything to do with the allegation you have made.

[GuidoT]

i got a letter back from gm declining my offer of £100 and still want £370 i dont know what to do as i stupidly admitted it before i found this site they even have the cheek to give me the option of paying in instalements

should i pay i am at my wits end

 

I would just ignore them, it is very likely that ACS will not be able to trade through this debacle.

 

Do not be at your wits end, there are far more important things in life to be concerned about.

 

If they write to you again then come back here.

 

It looks like the firm is not limited, there is an ACS Law Limited registered at Companies House but it is dormant.

 

That means when the ICO etc. come after the firm, they will come after Andrew Crossley personally, he will be left with nothing and hopefully be put in prison.

 

As much as I do not condene what Pirate Bay and 4chan have done, it shows if you do bad things, bad things will happen to you.

 

Do not mess with 4chan.

Edited October 3, 2010 by GuidoT

[baffledbygm]

I would just ignore them, it is very likely that ACS will not be able to trade through this debacle.

 

Do not be at your wits end, there are far more important things in life to be concerned about.

 

If they write to you again then come back here.

 

It looks like the firm is not limited, there is an ACS Law Limited registered at Companies House but it is dormant.

 

That means when the ICO etc. come after the firm, they will come after Andrew Crossley personally, he will be left with nothing and hopefully be put in prison.

 

As much as I do not condene what Pirate Bay and 4chan have done, it shows if you do bad things, bad things will happen to you.

 

Do not mess with 4chan.

 

This is Gallant-Macmillan though, not ACS. Though I've been enjoying the pantomime and they do have some sort of link to each other don't they?

 

blashey- I'd see what the NPO hearing outcome is tomorrow before deciding what to do next. £100 appears to be more than adequate in way of compensation. Perhaps you could offer the £100 again, along with a letter saying "Give me a breakdown of where you get the £370 figure from and how much of it will go to their "client"" and gently remind them of their failure to adhere to pre-action protocol by not including it in their letter of claim. If they took you to court, would the court be sympathetic since you offered them a reasonable amount already? Would they be penalised and have to pay the costs for forcing it through court because of shear greed? Can anyone with legal knowledge on here clarify where you would stand in that situation?

 

Say someone steals a £10 parker pen off your desk. You tell them you want £370 by way of compensation because it cost you £50 to bribe the security guard into letting you look at CCTV footage of the office it find out who it was, and you want another £310 for yourself to buy a fancy sound system for your car, because you are a greedy money-grabbing sod. The pen stealer offers you £100 and apologises and promises not to do it again. You say "No I want my sound system- I'll see you in court". You take them to court and the judge laughs at you and calls you a money-grabbing sod. Does this sound viable?

 

I sent GM an LOD which was an obvious template. I also stated that I thought their methods were intimidating, that they ignored pre-action protocol and that they would be hypocrites for not accepting my template when they are posting templates out in their thousands. 8 weeks and still no reply. Wonder which pile one of their office monkeys put me on? Please CMW do the right thing tomorrow!

[GuidoT]

This is Gallant-Macmillan though, not ACS. Though I've been enjoying the pantomime and they do have some sort of link to each other don't they?

 

 

Okay, I thought it was ACS, ignore what I wrote. I do not know the position with GM.

 

Check this leaked email:

 

Fellow Paralegals,

 

From now on, if you find a response to a third party letter, do not send a security letter. Instead, please move the letter into the ABANDON HOPE folder in General Paras.

 

This is because Andrew and Adam will be drafting a new letter so we can drop a couple of hundred cases over the next couple of weeks, putting pressure on those who we do not drop to settle.

 

If you find someone who is blind, one legged and dying, and you think they are not worth pursuing due to the possibility of bad PR, please also put them in there. However, the majority of cases will be continued.

 

Enjoy your evening,

 

Rob Heelas

 

ACS Law Solicitors

[cerberusalert]

I read somewhere that compensation should be based on their actual loss which is 80p per track.

[wittzend]

Check this leaked email:

 

 

 

If you find someone who is blind, one legged and dying, and you think they are not worth pursuing due to the possibility of bad PR, please also put them in there. However, the majority of cases will be continued.

 

Proper charmers:-(

[andydd]

i got a letter back from gm declining my offer of £100 and still want £370 i dont know what to do as i stupidly admitted it before i found this site they even have the cheek to give me the option of paying in instalements

should i pay i am at my wits end

 

If you pay anythjing you should put that you are doing it under duress and you maintain your innocence.

 

ACS had a letter saying this and it clearly worried Andrew Crossley as to accept the money would mean you are taking money of people who are (or claim to be) innocent putting Andrew in a very dodgy position, it would also leave open the possibilty that the person could try and reclaim the money back in future.

 

Whilst Googling ACS the other day I also came across a solicitor who would take up cases for you and even try and get back money if you had already paid up.

 

Andy

[GuidoT]

This is before things started to even go really wrong:

 

"there are presently over 500 complaints against me thanks to the internet campaign and Which. Each complaint is essentially the same and they are borne out of a determination by some to stop legitimate steps bing taken to curtail illegal file sharing. However, I do not know how I can avoid being found guilty of something, with 500 complaints to choose from.

 

If I stop this work my business will fold and my clients will be big losers, but if I carry on I fear that it will be worse for me in the long run. Have you any view either way, as I have run out of ideas. Presently I feel defeated by it and feel I should shut up shop, which will cause me to go bankrupt for certain"

 

Big loser hmmmm.

[andydd]

has anyone contacted ministry of sound out of curiosity to see if they are in agreement with gm and their methods of extracting money for them ?

 

There will no doubt be an greement between MOS and the solicitor(s), the same as in ACS's case, althgough I believe ACS had agreements with indivdual songwriters (i.e Evacute The Dancefloor song) and i believe having looked at the ACS spreadsheets that they went after people who not only downloaded the individual song but also people who downloaded various complilations that contained that song.

 

Andy

[andydd]

This is before things started to even go really wrong:

 

"there are presently over 500 complaints against me thanks to the internet campaign and Which. Each complaint is essentially the same and they are borne out of a determination by some to stop legitimate steps bing taken to curtail illegal file sharing. However, I do not know how I can avoid being found guilty of something, with 500 complaints to choose from.

 

If I stop this work my business will fold and my clients will be big losers, but if I carry on I fear that it will be worse for me in the long run. Have you any view either way, as I have run out of ideas. Presently I feel defeated by it and feel I should shut up shop, which will cause me to go bankrupt for certain"

 

Have you got the emails ?. Have you got the number of this one ?. I'd be interested to read more.

 

Andy

[andydd]

Check this leaked email:

 

 

 

If you find someone who is blind, one legged and dying, and you think they are not worth pursuing due to the possibility of bad PR, please also put them in there. However, the majority of cases will be continued.

 

Proper charmers:-(

 

In their checklist they also had a box marked 'Politically sensitive' but its unclear what this refered to ?. Perhaps Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg are on the list having downloaded 'Gay Coalition Boys'.

 

Andy

[andydd]

I read somewhere that compensation should be based on their actual loss which is 80p per track.

 

 

Ahas..but ACS (and the rest) would claim that that arnt going after you for downloading a single track, they are after you for uploading and thus having it available for others to download, of course you could argue how many people downloaded it from you (they would no doubt argue many hundreds).

 

Of course the reality is that no-one downloaded the whole track from you, just bits from you and bits from thousands of others.

 

Andy

[andydd]

Some very good stuff on Torent freak reagrding Monday's courts case with GM.

 

http://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-lawyers-face-ddos-before-pivotal-court-decision-101002/

 

http://torrentfreak.com/judge-warns-of-end-to-file-sharing-cash-demands-100922/

 

Senior Judge Warns of End To File-Sharing Cash Demands

 

A senior judge has given the clearest indications so far that patience could be running out with “pay up or else” letters currently being sent out in their thousands to alleged file-sharers. At a hearing to authorize yet more, the judge called the schemes “a huge sledgehammer to crack a nut” adding that once the Digital Economy Act is in force, further applications may not be successful.

 

Andy

[andydd]

Some very good stuff on Torent freak reagrding Monday's courts case with GM.

 

http://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-lawyers-face-ddos-before-pivotal-court-decision-101002/

 

http://torrentfreak.com/judge-warns-of-end-to-file-sharing-cash-demands-100922/

 

Senior Judge Warns of End To File-Sharing Cash Demands

 

A senior judge has given the clearest indications so far that patience could be running out with “pay up or else” letters currently being sent out in their thousands to alleged file-sharers. At a hearing to authorize yet more, the judge called the schemes “a huge sledgehammer to crack a nut” adding that once the Digital Economy Act is in force, further applications may not be successful.

 

Also it looks like GM site is going to be attached in 30 mins..Gulp..will they screw up like ACS ?

 

Anonymous has zeroed in on their next target - the website of Gallant Macmillan. The DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack is scheduled for October 3 @ 3PM EST. Gallant Macmillan is one of two lawyers in the United Kingdom, the other being Andrew Crossley of ACS:Law, that actively carry out file-sharing litigation work. Although not much has been heard from ACS:Law, Gallant Macmillian is scheduled for a court appearance on Monday, October 4, hoping a court order will allow him to discover hundreds of alleged file-sharers. A ruling may go in his favor, but this latest effort withstand the energy of the Internet?

 

 

Andy

[cerberusalert]

GM's site is already down... they've probably gone offline as a precaution because of their impending doom.

[wozgeog]

stand by for another big leak

[cerberusalert]

I can confirm that there have been 29 complaints regarding settlement demands / offers made by the firm Gallant Macmillan LLP in respect of alleged illegal file sharing activity between 1 January and 10 August 2010.

 

I trust this information resolves your request.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Bob Stanley

Information Compliance Manager - Legal Services

The Law Society, 113 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1PL

t: 020 7242 1222 (x4117)

f: 020 7320 5685

[1]www.lawsociety.org.uk

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/complaints_received_regarding_ga

[huggys boss]

Gallant have taken their website down!!!!

[cerberusalert]

Gallant have taken their website down!!!!

 

it's been down all day.

[huggys boss]

Thought they might, think they went too public this time!

[cerberusalert]

As was said on another site;

They may be acting like rabbits hiding in a bush surrounded by hounds but they'll have to come out sometime.

[Jasper1965]

Look at the unsubstantiated legal proceedings which could be disrupted if these cyber chappies were to concentrate their efforts on MCOL until such time as Bryan Carter and select others were held to account.

[wittzend]

Look at the unsubstantiated legal proceedings which could be disrupted if these cyber chappies were to concentrate their efforts on MCOL until such time as Bryan Carter and select others were held to account.

 

 

What is MCOL and who is Bryan Carter?

[cerberusalert]

MCOL = Money Claim Online http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/onlineservices2/mcol/index.htm

 

Bryan Carter = A well known lawyer who chases credit debts & who uses the above to apply for CCJs, but because of 'clerical errors' has been known to use previous addresses for claims & on occasions serve 'split claims' which is a no-no.