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

[Harbinger16]

^^if you are on dynamic then your IP should have changed every so often. Only if you had a static IP would it stay the same usually, maybe you ISP has a policy of always trying to allocate users the same IP's, some do but thats not important as on dynamic your IP can be change at any time. This IP has supposedly appeared in a torrent tracker, Logistep (or someone similar) claim that they have come across this IP in a tracker for a copyrighted file and discovered that the IP was owned by your ISP, they contacted your ISP and were told that that IP at the alleged time of uploading was in use by your connection.

There's lots of supposedlys and allegedlys here because IP tracking is so damned unreliable, even the UK ISP association has said that they are very concerned that ACS's data collection is unreliable.

[cosmox]

Thanks for the info

Harbinger16. Its much appreciated.

 

I am going to write them a LOD Tomorrow and send it away. I am only worried i have left it a day or 2 to long and they will send me info regarding a court appearance. I think i recieved my second letter on the 4th of this month so i might still have time to get it to them.

[Harbinger16]

^^go to post office first thing tomorrow and send it next day recorded delivery, that way they cannot claim they didn't receive it. ACS are looking for non-respondents so they can get default victories, they don't actually want people vigorously defending themselves as they don't want to go to court on such dubious evidence. Best of luck mate and fight the buggers.

[djkbkb96]

Hi folks,

 

I to have had 2 letters from ACS Law, the second saying payment of £400.01 was to be paid within 7 days or I would be taken to court. They also claimed I had not responded to their initial letter, which I had done via recorded delivery.

 

I have re-sent my letter via recorded delivery and also e-mailed them this information.

 

However, the two times I have sent the letters the post office has told me the address does not match the postcode. Royal Mail postcode checker online also does not recognise their postcode either???

 

I called them up to tell them this which they couldnt explain although they checked and confirmed they had recieved my e-mails, obviously denying and illegal downloading.

 

Would appreciate any updated information on this. Dreading coming in and opening my mail just now.

[cosmox]

can someone point me in the direction to get the template/format for a LOD please.

 

Cheers again

[Harbinger16]

LOD's are here, probably a good idea to paraphrase them though as ACS are saying they don't accept template denials.

@djkbkb96, it depends really, if you get a court summons then it's probably worth contacting Lawdit as they are experts here and good at defending the charges. I haven't actually heard of anyone receiving a summons yet so if it's just another pay up or else then you could just keep denying or go for a "put up or shut up" i.e take me to court or cease harassing me, and then call your lawyer if they go for the former.

[dippycat]

Hi Again,

Thanks for the replies it was a help, only one thing puzzels me you say not to sign the LOD yet in the template it says "the letter should be signed to make it legally binding" I have signed mine but did not send it recored mail but I have kept a copy of the letter I sent.So why should I have not signed it?.

[cosmox]

Hi again.

 

I did not send a lod to the first letter. So im just going to modify the LOD to suit my circumstances.

 

Also like dippycat was saying. Should i sign it?

[Huff&Puff]

Never sign anything. Use a script or handwriting font intead of your signature.

[cosmox]

Problem is i want to send my LOD tomorrow but i dont have a scanner etc to use this. Would you recommend not signing it?

[Huff&Puff]

Download a free handwriting font that you like, and just type a sig using that. No scanner needed:

 

handwriting font - Google Search

[cashins]

LOD's are here, probably a good idea to paraphrase them though as ACS are saying they don't accept template denials.

 

A letter of denial is a letter of denial, if it comes off a template, (as the greater majority of legal documents do), that has no bearing on the matter.

 

If they don't like it, tough.

 

David

[nicknack09]

Has anyone written to lawdit. Just saw a recent post in their reading room saying we could contact for advise

[Harbinger16]

A letter of denial is a letter of denial, if it comes off a template, (as the greater majority of legal documents do), that has no bearing on the matter.

 

If they don't like it, tough.

 

David

 

fair point, could it be that they are filtering out people who send in the template as they know they will be better informed (as they got it from a support forum) then the other guy who sends in a panicky hand written letter and who could be much more likely to pay up asap.

[judixxx]

hi, have read the entire forum on ACS this evening and had to join to share my encounter with them also. After ignoring 1st letter back in june as I thought it was a [problem], I recieved 2nd letter from ACS on Saturday saying I had 7 days to pay £500.00 or be taken to court and have to pay £1000.00. I have replied this evening via e-mail to them (LOD part template and part worded in my own words). Why is it taking so long for them to contact us all if we apparently downloaded music/games over a year ago? Mine was supposedly Scooter last May. I am afraid to turn on my computer in case this crowd are hacking into it!!

[cashins]

fair point, could it be that they are filtering out people who send in the template as they know they will be better informed (as they got it from a support forum) then the other guy who sends in a panicky hand written letter and who could be much more likely to pay up asap.

 

May well be some truth in that.

 

If they wind up in a court fight and lose, the game's up.

 

David

[judixxx]

sorry, forgot to mention, have tried phoning the number on several occasions but it rings for ages and then a male voice says "thanks for calling ACS, we are either with another client or you are phoning out of hours, if you are phoning regarding a letter nyou have recievd from us, please leave (then asks for all your details ,which I didnt leave)!! Normally a solicitors would have a receptinist or something, it smells of [problem] all over!! It sounds like a 1 man band running the entire operation....

[Harbinger16]

@judixxx be careful with emailing them as apparently they have a nasty habit of never receiving them, secondly they can't say that you will be taken to court and fined £1k, thats up to the judge, if you are found guilty. Send them a letter via Royal Mail with recorded delivery, then you have proof of receivership. I doubt your machine has been hacked but to be 100% sure make sure you are running an up to date virus checker/firewall (like zone alarm), important for any computer user really.

[piglette]

I had my second letter on Friday, the plaintiff being DigiProtect. It said I had not replied to the first letter although I had. I decided to go to see a solcitor, who said he felt embarrassed that a member of his profession was involved in something like this, he also said that any judge would laugh it out of court. In fact on going through the letters the solicitor laughed quite a lot, I assume in disbelief.

 

It seems 18 Hanover Square are serviced offices

http://www.avanta.co.uk/UK/offices/serviced-office/serviced-office-london/w1/hanover-square/Facilities-Price-List

 

Also you may find his visit to the Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal in 2006 of interest

http://www.sra.org.uk/documents/consumers/SDT/Crossley%209346.05_0206.pdf

[penumbra]

Hi all, Penumbra here visiting from other sites which are not allowed to be linked to from here. Like the one which provides the template letter most of you are using.

 

I just felt the need to pop in to clear up a few things.

 

Whilst I appreciate the paranoia some people may feel when dealing with dodgy / fake debt collection companies THIS IS *NOT* A DEBT COLLECTION MATTER. At this point in the game NOBODY owes anyone ANYTHING. This is a real solicitors sending out real letters on behalf of real rights holders in connection with INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY or COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT. Please would those who are saying this will end up on the small claims track, etc, etc pipe down as you are horribly, dangerously, wrong.

 

You DO NOT have to abstain from signing the LOD. Please just go ahead and sign it once you have read it, understood it and CHANGED IT TO MAKE IT ACCURATE FOR YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES.

 

They will not lift your signature and use it on a cheque or in identity fraud. As dubious and as vile as their revenue scheme is, and however many SRA judgements Andrew Crossley has received, they are not conmen. This is not a [problem] (in the usual sense of the word). It is real and if you ignore it you are at real risk of ending up in court (the patents court, on the mixed track). Sign the LOD and then you are making it an official document.

 

If you are innocent the advice of anyone with any legal training whatsoever has been, from the start, to reply and deny. Do not ignore these letters. Engage with them and deny it. If you did do it, well frankly get a solicitor ASAP and start negotiating.

 

Nobody who has replied and denied has ended up in court so far.

 

Thanks for listening.

Edited September 9, 2009 by penumbra

[Harbinger16]

@piglette, can you say any more about what your solicitors comments where on the letter? It may be of comfort to anyone who's panicking about it.

[piglette]

My solicitor said very much what Penumbra has said. Reply, send the letter recorded delivery, vehemently deny the download, as I am not guilty and have never even heard of the film in question, until I received the ACS letter. Interestingly enough he told me to leave the bit out about harrasment and upset, I am not sure why, but told me to say that I would have no hesitation in defending myself through my solicitor for every penny of cost that I had incurred, if proceedings were issued.

 

He said that if it ever got to court, which was highly unlikely, the first thing they would have to prove is guilt. This country still works on the premise innocent until proved guilty, although the ACS letter seems to imply the other way round, in that we are being asked to prove our innocence. Even ACS, on their website, admit a court case could be highly complicated. The solicitor also said that an expert witness would probably make mincemeat of the case.

 

He also said that the trial in the States of Jammie Thomas-Rasset was trial by jury, which can sometimes come out with strange results. I got the impression that in this country it would not be trial by jury, I may have misunderstood. Also it appeared she had persistenly downloaded and distributed items over a period of time, in the trial she was said to have shared 1,702 songs online to millions of other users on 21 February 2005. She is appealing against the judgement, including asking to ignore the evidence from the company that picked up her IP address, this is a copy which is very easy to read:

Ray Beckerman PC - PDF Viewer

[D_arkTrooper]

So the postman has just dropped a big brown envelope through the letterbox with a hand written address on it.

 

And yes...its a claim form from ACS:Law.

 

Haven't properly read through it yet,as my heart is racing like mad at the moment.

 

Will update later (gotta go to work first).

[penumbra]

You're correct that it wouldn't be a jury trial in the UK. It'd be more along the lines of you, your solicitor, ACS law and the judge sitting down having a chat.

 

The various trials in the US are wholly different to what is happening here, a fact which ACS obviously aren't interested in pointing out. For a start, many of the defendants there admitted guilt and actually did do the infringing. This is not the case for a significant proportion of letter recipients here. Furthermore, the copyright holders have much more power in the US - they are allowed to impound your computers, etc for detailed analysis which would not ordinarily happen in a civil trial in the UK. Because of this they had an awful lot more evidence than ACS have. There's also the point that at the time of the infringements occurring in the US, wireless networks were nowhere near as prevalent as they are now, and ISPs were not doling them out like candy without any sort of encryption switched on.

 

ACS and the rightsholders in this case want to avoid going to court. They don't want the evidence challenged and it is bad for their business model to incur court costs. If you are innocent, a robust denial stands you in good stead if the unthinkable should happen and they actually follow through on their threats (which they have not done so far).

[D_arkTrooper]

Quick update.

 

The pack includes a 6 page Claim Form stamped with the Central London County Court seal.

 

It has a box saying "Ammount Claimed" and the answer being "Not more than £3000"

 

The rest of that document is the stuff printed in the original letter about the IP address etc and the Scooter album.

 

The other document is a questionaire.Its asking for all details about my income,bank details,outgoing expenses,debts etc and seems to be split into sections (Admitting the claim,defence and counter claim etc.)

 

The address given to send all correspondance is:

 

Miss K Rekhi (Clerk to Judge Fysh)

Room SD306A

St Dunstens House

133-137 Fetter Lane

London

EC4A 1BT