[governance] Lawyers target thousands of 'illegal' file-sharers

[Imran Ahmed Shah]

The users are on threat who had been involved in sharing and downloading right protected contents. 

In a first glance it seems a simple threat for the Torrent Users and Websites by the Lawyers who are going to protected through the court orders and supported with anti piracy act. The main purpose of this activity is assumed to sorting out a source of income for the lawyers. They have found a way to demand a settlement fee or to ask the owners to compromise on the illegal usage and sharing their files or other contents. 

On thinking twice, it may reflect another point of view that social and public networks are not protected and secure against privacy, especially when some data sharing utilities are installed on the computers. It is dangerous to some extend and may result to a huge amount of fine. This is necessary for the awareness of internet users that if the have downloaded a Torrent Application onto their computer to download any of the legally free contents from the other users such as utilities which are free and share-ware under open GPL policies, they are innocent and are not doing any illegal action but it is most possible that same application has provided access for external users to your hard disk (where some license software is stored for their own use and is protected as legal contents). Now what will be happen if hundred of other user will be accessing from your hard disk, downloading and using it? Definitely they have become a part of network who are
 involved in piracy by sharing their files and software for illegal usage.

Similarly what protection rights are being provided to the Internet Users. For example some times a Trojan or Virus (like waucult.exe) is installed onto the all network computers when they are connected to the ISP's DNS Server. And many of them stars fetching and up loading all files from the infected computer. Who knows that where data packets are being transferred. LAN or Modem upload statistics reaches upto .2 to .5 millions in a 4 hours. Who is fetching this data and where it will be used? Even by installing anti virus applications No one can catch it. Either ISP is involved or his DNS Server is also infected?

An other deep thinking may lead to the facts that how minutely monitored with the help of ISP, what the internet users are browsing, who is connected to which network, who is accessing or sharing which type of contents on the highway of the Internet. It is just beyond the log-in and log-out timing of the internet connections.

The illegal usage of the internet, software applications and utilities should be reduced to zero level to stop piracy and to provide the financial benefit to the application owners and developers of the contents.  

Imran A Shah

Eric Dierker wrote: 
> In some small way, many of us welcome such action.  Courts are slow. The only opinions in western jurisprudence that carry the weight of precedence or guidance are Appellate Court opinions.  For most we need more guidance and interpretation of the law  -- a larger case law body of interpretation and application.  While the few may suffer, some will bring these issues up through the expensive and time consuming Appellate process where we can begin to get some clearer picture of where we are headed, based upon where we have been.  As the 2 % or so of these work their way up, watch for most of those to be resolved prior to opinions that could possibly hurt the industrial side of the equation. --- On Mon, 11/30/09, Parminder <parminder at itforchange.net> wrote: 
>  From: Parminder <parminder at itforchange.net> Subject: [governance] Lawyers target thousands of 'illegal' file-sharers To: "'governance at lists.cpsr.org'" <governance at lists.cpsr.org> Date: Monday, November 30, 2009, 12:56 AM 
>  Private policing..... Shows the kind of global policy issues and frameworks that are at stake. Parminder 
>  Page last updated at 13:54 GMT, Friday, 27 November 2009 E-mail this to a friend     Printable version Lawyers target thousands of 'illegal' file-sharers By Jonathan Fildes Technology reporter, BBC News Ethernet cable Software is used to track down the suspected pirates Around 15,000 suspected pirates may soon get legal letters accusing them of illegally sharing movies and games. ACS:Law plans to send notes to the accused in the new year offering a chance to settle out of court for "several hundreds of pounds". A lawyer who has defended people who have received similar letters described it as a "scattergun approach" that would catch "innocent people". ACS:Law said it was "unaware" of anyone who had been wrongly sent a letter. Andrew Crossley of the firm told BBC News it was acting to "eradicate" sharing of its client's products. "We
>  give them opportunity to enter into compromise right at the start to avoid having to deal with it [in court]," said Mr Crossley. If it went to court and the lawyers were successful, he said, damages "would run into several thousands of pounds". But consumer group Which? said that it had heard from around 150 consumers who had been "wrongly accused" in similar cases. "A lot are accused of downloading pornography," Jaclyn Clarabut of Which? told BBC News. "People find it distressing or embarrassing and pay up." Others, she said, "don't want the threat of court action" hanging over them or cannot afford to pay for a lawyer and settle the claim for the lower figure.    We estimate that commencing in the New Year we will be despatching circa 15,000 letters in relation to these two orders Andrew Crossley She said that based on previous experience, "a lot of people will be surprised" by the latest wave
>  of letters. Michael Coyle, lawyer at Southampton based firm Lawdit, described the scheme as "having very little to do with protecting the rights of the copyright holder". Instead, he said, it was "more to do with making money from alleging copyright infringements on a massive scale". He has represented several hundred clients who have received letters from ACS: Law and other firms. None of his clients has ever been forced by a court to pay a fine, he said, although some clients had decided to settle out of court. "This scattergun approach to the file sharing litigation will inevitably result in a large number of innocent parties being issued with a claim for copyright infringement." ACS: Law are "currently under investigation" by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), but a spokesperson said it could not divulge any more details about the nature of the complaints. The Law Society has also received complaints.
>  Mr Crossley said his firm had been targeted by an "internet campaign" and was cooperating with the inquiries. "It doesn't of itself indicate that I have done anything wrong," he said. "I have no qualms or concerns about what I am doing." Data harvest ACS: Law recently obtained two High Court orders that require ISPs to hand over the names and addresses of the account holders for 30,000 IP addresses, a number which can identify a computer on the internet. It is currently preparing three more. The orders were obtained on behalf of two German clients: DigiProtect and MediaCat. Mouse and keyboard Which? say innocent people have been caught out in similar cases Both firms are licensees of copyright work. They act on behalf of copyright holders, including various pornography studios, to pursue alleged copyright infringements. They use software to monitor file sharing networks to harvest IP
>  addresses which are then turned over to law firms to get account details. "We state that they [the alleged file-sharers] have made available to others via peer-to-peer file-sharing networks various products that they have rights in," said Mr Crossley. He said these included "games, films and music". "We estimate that commencing in the New Year we will be despatching circa 15,000 letters in relation to these two orders," he said. The letters would be used to tell the alleged "file-sharer" that they were thought to have infringed copyright. It would also inform recipients that a claim may be made against them in court and would "invite" them "to enter into a compromise to avoid any litigation." The amount would vary, he said, but was typically £300-500. The money is split between the copyright holder, licensee, the firm monitoring IP addresses and ACS: Law, which operates on a no win, no fee basis.
>  'Spoof' address Concerns have been raised about the technology used to identify IP addresses. Which? has highlighted various examples of innocent people accused by firms such as DigiProtect . "Many have never heard of peer-to-peer file sharing," said Ms Clarabut.    ILLEGAL FILE-SHARING File-sharing is not illegal. It only becomes illegal when users are sharing content, such as music, that is protected by copyrights The crackdown will be aimed at people who regularly use technologies, such as BitTorrent, and websites, such as The Pirate Bay, to find and download files There are plenty of legitimate services which use file-sharing technology such as some on-demand TV services Q&A: Disconnecting file-sharers "Some are accused of downloading video games but never played a game in their life." A study published in 2008 by Which? highlighted the case of Scottish couple Gill
>  and Ken Murdoch, aged 54 and 66, who were accused of sharing a video game. At the time, Mrs Murdoch told Which?: "We do not have, and have never had, any computer game or sharing software." The letters were sent by another law firm, which no longer represents DigiProtect. Mr Crossley said the Murdochs had been identified because the ISP gave the lawyers the wrong information about the account. Mr Crossley admitted the account holder may not be the person sharing files illegally. As a result, he said, the letter, would also invite the recipient to name the person they thought was responsible. The growing popularity of wi-fi means many people share an internet connection. Recent studies have also shown that many people do not password protect their wi-fi connections, meaning they can be hijacked and used for nefarious means. In addition, technology exists that can hide or "spoof" an IP address. Mr Crossley
>  said that "spoofing" did not apply for file sharing purposes. Expert analysis Mr Coyle said he also had reservations about the methods used to identify people and said they had never been challenged in court by experts. "The last thing they want is this software being examined in a court of Law - it would shoot the goose that lays the Golden Egg," he said. No court case has ever been fully decided from a letter sent by ACS: Law, he said. Although Mr Crossley admitted the software had never been analysed in court, he denied it had never been scrutinised. "Every application submitted to court is supported by an expert report," he said. The report was compiled by "an independent expert" and confirmed that the "data being collected is accurate". "That is the starting point for us," said Mr Crossley. "It is very important for us to be accurate. If it is not, everything that comes from that data
>  must be flawed." Similar concerns are currently being outlined to the UK government which recently outlined how it plans to tackle illegal file-sharers. The Digital Economy bill recently had its first reading and includes a plan to disconnect persistent offenders. BBC News - Lawyers target thousands of 'illegal' file-sharers (29 November 2009) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8381097.stm -----Inline Attachment Follows----- 
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