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

[samueladams]

I would be quite happy leaving the country to be honest, I wish I could. Bent country!

 

Exactly

Edited April 22, 2010 by samueladams

[BARFLY]

Does the recent round of letters mean that ACS have already sent out the 30 000 claims they were promising after the November 2009 NPO? Half the population will be getting a letter if it goes on at this rate! Did the ISPs even provide the information requested from the last one? If I remember rightly BT were saying it could take six months to provide the details.

[zero_flight]

I can only presume that these are the letters that they were threatening to send out. My ISP provider denies providing any such information to them, so I think that they have made the IP address up. I do not see how else they have obtained these addresses. The more I look into this the more flaws that I find. Its a legal game of cat and mouse. However, this time the mice are biting back.

[BARFLY]

It seems the latest letters relate to the February 2010 order, though. When do the latest letters claim the downloading took place. It seems that the downloading is more and more recent. With the earlier letters the downloading was alleged to have taken place a year or even more earlier. What are the dates in the recent round of letters? Anyone?

[paranoid_fish]

They claim the date it took place is in August 2009 and the court order was stamped on the 17th Feb 2010.

[fishingmadmark]

My letter tells me 10/07/09. and the court order 17/02/10.

[zero_flight]

Mines P2P Share 29/07/09 and court 17/02/10

 

But the time was 01:17 in the morning and I'm usually in bed by 23:00 due to my partner was working a early shift. LOL

Edited April 20, 2010 by zero_flight

[fishingmadmark]

And mine was not a download they say i let people upload from my computer/ip address using a p2p site. mine was 10.24:48

[BARFLY]

You're right, fishingmadmark, the alleged offence is the uploading rather than the downloading. Distributing the material. Seems they are gearing up the operation, applying for more frequent NPOs, with the alleged offences having been at a more recent date. Does this have anything to do with how long ISPs have to retain the IP address details perhaps?

[fishingmadmark]

My isp told me they have no record of any court order for my details so have they even sent any order anyhow??? there must be other ways of finding customers details or sky are telling me lies.

Edited April 20, 2010 by fishingmadmark

[devonwoman]

Sky did tell me that my details were passed on and that they were aware of this situation but would not give me any information, they gave me an email address so i have emailed them and waiting for a reply. If our ISP refused to give out this info then acs law would be stumped and the operation would fall.

[mattpaint]

I recieved my letter on saturday...and after the initial panic...for some reason my sum is double most others quoted...ive now calmed down after doing a bit of homework. Goes without saying im innocent

i found this article an interesting read

Received a letter from ACS LAW?

[redempt1on]

Hi there,

 

I've been viewing this (and the other general forums such as sylck etc) since I recieved a letter from ACS, this was some time ago and was not with the recent influx of litigation sent out.

 

While I have already formed a LOR against my LOD denying all accusations I have also been researching over the firm ACS:LAW and its affiliates to see what actions are being taken by them and how it reflects upon them in mounting a court case (possibly a class action one once I am sure the case would be substancial as well as showing the true nature of this exploitative scheme) This whole scheme is based off unproven 'evidence' to threaten those who are not technologicaly literate and the threat of unproven evidence means that while nobody has been formally convicted, there is no solid answer to whether or not the evidence ACS:LAW are threatening you with is substacial to sucessfully win a case against us, this works in favor for ACS as the uncertanty breeds fear of being the exception to the rule and nobody wants that kind of debt thrown on them (guilty or not)

 

Because of what I am planning it is unlikly I will be posting often, but i will be keeping a tab on this alias I have setup until I am in a position to begin proceedings.

 

I have made preemptive measures to limit the possibility that they can trace my idenitify through information left on this forum to the point that even my IP address has me located in another part of the world, proxied through a variety of servers before reaching this website. although it is unlikely that ACS:LAW would be able to force this forum to disclose information pertaining to my post, however after the attempt against slyck and the methods that Andrew Crossley and Co are capable of stooping too, I feel it is an appropriate measure.

 

(I am explaining this so that when ACS enevitably read this they will understand just how easy it is for a person to hide their idenitity online, it is also to help those who have been sent such letters that you indeed are likely to be innocent and as such you should not doubt that in any way!)

 

(I am also firing off a warning shot in a way so that while ACS think that they can sit back and send wave after wave of unfounded claims to the innocent and get away with it, that many of us will not sit by and allow it to keep on going and that there are those who have a much larger understanding of technical information being used to intimidate those accused.)

 

I would say that I have a larger than average understanding of IT, specifically networking,communications,hardware,software engineering,network security,cryptogrophy etc etc (to cast a broad net as to my specific technical knowledge) needless to say i have more than enough understanding of the technical aspects regarding networking on computers in general to know that the methods involved in spoofing IP addresses (make my computer look like yours online) proxys (connecting through many different computers to mask myself online and become anonymous) VPN (Virtual Private Networks) etc etc are all to easy to impliment and that even a pre-teen can set these methods up and combine them together with ease.

 

With all the above in mind I would be interested to see who else is interested in having this evidence shown in civil court case against ACS:LAW and to get a solid answer once and for all on whether or not any of these accusations have grounds to allow such letters to be sent out en mass? I believe once we get an answer once and for all that we could stop this extortion once and for all, it just takes the right person to head the fight.

 

I believe I could be that person, but would welcome support and assistance in this endeavor. It would not happen immidiatly but I have building a case (well trying to, I have life obligations also) and hope to move forward by the end of the year.

 

What do you all think?

 

also to throw a legal rope to those who have only recently been sent letters, they are indeed legitimate and must be treated as such, the court orders are allowed and have been issued many times by only 1 judge (who I have been trying to set up a meeting with to discuss why these are being issued and to state a case against issuing them based on the little evidence given at these sessions. No luck yet.)

 

Also with regards to ISPs when contacting them it is pointless going to the customer service to ask whether or not they did give up your information, the details relating to any information distriuted by the ISP is a legal matter, lower level Customer service reps will either not have access to the legal notes on your account, or will be forced to respond with a generic answer (normally saying I dont know, or that there is no indication details have been given out) you need to go to the ISP's legal department and request a confirm or denial outright that they had been issued a NPO.

 

Many ISP legal teams will state that it would prejudise any legal proceeding to tell you if they have or not, but if you state that legal proceedings are not in effect and that you are not asking for specifics, just a confirmation that your ISP recieved an NPO, you are likely to get your confirmation of the company giving out details of subscribers. once you have this confirmation you can then get them to tell you exactly what details regarding your subscription were given out.

 

To that effect, I have a formal letter from the ISP O2 Telefonica stating that they have indeed given out details due to an NPO in the past and have told me specifially what they have given out to ACS:LAW.

 

They have also confirmed that they have NOT looked at or validated ANY of the details submitted by ACS:LAW and as such are only giving ouy the IP address, date and time of the IP address and the subsciber it was linked to at that time (basiaclly the information on your Letters of Alleged Copyright Infringement) ACS have NOTHING else and HAVE NOT had the 'evidence' reenforced as being correct by your ISP (at least not by O2, if O2 were lying about this then I have formal corrispondance to take them to court with also, signed and dated by the O2 legal team) I am inclined to believe them when they say they do not look or give any enforcement to ACS' data.

 

if you need to get validation of ACS getting your information from o2, then you need to contact:

 

[email protected]

 

this address is linked between the data controller of O2 Telefonica in the UK as well as the legal team (from what i understand) these are the only people who can validate the court order issued to them, customer service is kept out of the loop.

 

O2 are already on record for having to give out this information, so I believe it is safe to specify how to oobtain formal corrisponace from them. I suppose anyone could say O2 gave out their details, seeing as they went on the record about it on the BBC.....(I know how you think ACS:LAW looking for a way of idenfiying me I'd wager.....)

 

if requested enough i will scan the letter from O2 onto this forum (with personal information removed of course) so you can see for yourselves and hopfully find some solace in it.

 

sorry for the long post, hopfully it helps and hopfully there will be some who would like to join my cause.

 

- redempt1on

Edited April 21, 2010 by redempt1on
formatting lost

[zero_flight]

Honestly I find it very hard to believe that this is not a fake court order, it just has so many flaws. If that is what gets produced from our legal system I think that they need to have a gool look at their documentation seriously.

[whereswally]

Very interesting reply redempt1on, glad to have somebody onboard who has the technical know how to help the masses of innocent people who are doomed to believe what ACS:LAW says is correct.

 

I for one would be interested in helping out. I have already committed enough of my time to researching and fighting this, it would be stupid not to try this avenue.

 

Shout if there is anything I can help with, I am sure that there are many many members on here who feel the same as me.

 

All for one, one for all

[zero_flight]

Well I am not sure in what capacity I can help, but I am prepared to do everything in my power to stop these rogues from practising. Bullying the young and the old its a god damn disgrace.

[mattpaint]

Ive read a lot of information about this since i got my letter and im still angry but out of interest as im tempted to do it... has anyone actually instead of using one of the generic templates thats very nicely written ..just replied if you have the proof you claim you have then i want to be taken to court??? Imagine if absolutely everyone just sent back that short note!

[shenme]

I can't believe this is still going on. They originally sent me a letter last June for an alledged infringement the year before! I haven't heard from them since October 2009. I don't know whether I can say I'm in the clear as it constantly hangs over me, but if there's anything I can do with the plans to bring ACS down then let me know!

[zero_flight]

You will not have heard anything cause their evidence will not stand up in court. So its a waste of their time and energy. Lets hope that their starting to get the message that people are not going to be paying out to them. Ending this total sham.

[Scooby Doo69]

You will not have heard anything cause their evidence will not stand up in court. So its a waste of their time and energy. Lets hope that their starting to get the message that people are not going to be paying out to them. Ending this total sham.

 

I doubt it. It's speculative invoicing. Each letter sent out only costs them a couple of quid (if that) after the initial time and effort spent on drafting the template.

 

From then on in it's a numbers game. One person pays up for £400-£500 and that covers the cost of 200-250 more letters, so they only need a handful to pay up to cover their costs and everything there on in is profit after you take off the overhead of the poor sap opening the letters and banking the cheques...

[Scooby Doo69]

I can't believe this is still going on. They originally sent me a letter last June for an alledged infringement the year before! I haven't heard from them since October 2009. I don't know whether I can say I'm in the clear as it constantly hangs over me, but if there's anything I can do with the plans to bring ACS down then let me know!

 

I'm afraid they could come back to you at any time. Currently they are hoovering up monies from the fresh batch of letters that have gone out. Once that cash cow has dried up they may return to previous claims and will pursue those they feel may pay up.

 

The only thing that is going to stop them is a flood of complaints into the SRA. This will force the SRA to put pressure on ACS to advise people that their claim is being closed or take them to Court. We all know they are allergic to the latter, so it's the former.

 

In a way, we should want ACS to drag this on for as long as possible, so they can be done for mispractice by the SRA.

 

Anyone know what sanctions SRA can enforce with ACS?

[whereswally]

I've had a reply from the SRA, saying that they are having a huge amount of complaints through.

 

Keep sending in the complaints guys.

[KimB94]

"Can everyone please help me?

Im 15 years old, I live with my mother, Im female and Im the only one using the internet. We use Sky broadband and just yesterday we got the ACS:Law letter by Andrew J. Crossley. We're to pay £495 for downloading some porn movie using a P2P thingy.. EXCUSE ME. I have never i my entire life downloaded anything, especially not pornography! So what do we do? My mother was going to pay up, only because it mentioned the high court, but luckily i stopped her to do some researching.

 

Do I pay up?

Do I ignore every letter they will send to us?

If we go to court, what the hell do we say? Im the only one using the internet in this house."

 

RIGHT its been a few days and ANOTHER letter has been sent to my mum, this time a different file, about pornography WTF, as I said, im the only one using the internet, why the hell are they accusing us of downloading that? Why would they send me another letter? We now apparently have to pay another £495, which means £990 altogether. What should we do?

Edited April 21, 2010 by KimB94

[whereswally]

Hi Kim,

 

Can I just say that I follow this forum a lot, but that post really shocks me to think that people such as yourself are falling fowl of ACS:LAW's tactics.

 

I will paste a guide which might help as a starting point. But I can see that you are only 15 years old, which will obviously make things quite difficult for you to contend with at present.

 

Firstly, don't fear if you are innocent. Take some time with your mum to sit down and read up on the material on here and other places. If you would like me to spend 5 minutes sending over a few links to put your mind at rest.

 

I think the main problem will be convincing your mum that this needs to be taken very seriously and not to get angry or worried over it.

 

 

Guys who have been affected by the recent claims, who are innocent..read on:

 

Step's to follow (imo):

 

1.) Calm down now

2.) Get your head around the fact that this will take TIME

3.) Google the website "being threatened"

4.) Read the forum "Slyck", where we can talk and provide useful links/templates

5.) READ

6.) Reply with a LOD (Letter Of Denial) by their reply date, but leave it till the last minute and send recorded delivery. Do not give away any personal information on the case which could be turned against you.

7.) Complain to the SRA (Solicitor Regulation Authority)

8.) Complain to everyone who will listen and remember, you are not alone.

 

There is a large amount of material on this on many sites such as BBC, Guardian, Which? computing etc. The only way you will focus, is by reading up on it.

 

It is not a [problem]. It is a very clever backdoor legitament case of dishonesty and taking advantage of a loophole in the current laws. You must treat this very seriously by keeping a copy of everything sent/received and make sure you cover this from the angle that everything will be used in evidence in court.

 

If you do give them too much info or put up personal info that can be used against you, then their case gets bigger on you.

Known to date....there have been 0 court cases over their "allegations".

(disclaimer) This post is a very quick summary and all steps above does not count as legal advice and I will not be held responsible for any problems that arise as a result, it has however, helped many many people deal with this distressful allegation pursuit.

Edited April 21, 2010 by MARTIN3030
Email links removed.Its against site rules.

[BARFLY]

Two demands! ACS seem to have gotten more brazen since the DEB. Have they duplicated the letter? Are the films different, or the dates when they were alleged to have been downloaded different.

 

Remember, so far ACS have not taken anyone to court. Reply with a letter of denial stating that you completely refute their allegations and that should you hear from them again you will report the matter to the SRA, Trading Standards, Which, etc. Do not provide them with any details regarding your connection, or anyone else who might have downloaded the material in question.