UK Law Firm: 15,000 Suspect Pirates To Be "Fined"

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The UK law firm, ACS:Law, one of the firms notorious for being in the anti-piracy business, is going to send 15,000 Internet users infringement notices with the intention to sue, unless they pay up the "several hundreds of pounds" to settle the matter outside of court.

UK lawyers Davenport Lyons used to be the ones to send out these notices in the UK, but due to a public backlash, they withdrew from this business model. It is then thought that staff from DL that handled these sort of cases moved to ACS:Law, although ACS:Law denies any such links.

Other lawyers are not so sure that ACS:Law's latest actions is the right one to combat online piracy. Describing it as a "scattergun approach", lawyers that have represented people being sent these notices say that there will be innocent people who get "caught", but ACS:Law denies that this has ever been the case. Consumer group Which? earlier this year managed to find 150 people that claim they were innocent of any piracy, and yet were sent notices, often for the download of pornographic materials they say they are not aware of, but many still pay up to avoid embarrassment. The targeting of porn downloaders has been the latest shift in strategy for anti-piracy agencies and the law firms they employ, as the extra embarrassment factor ensures a higher ratio of "pay ups".

More:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8381097.stm