Can accused file sharers ignore demands for £600?

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 1 Jul 2008 at 14:56

So if the cost of driving an alleged file sharer into court is so high, can these letters be written off as all talk and no trousers? Don't bet on it.

Big scalps

According to Connor, while much of the litigation has so far been focused on the music industry, increasing bandwidth will inevitably change the game.

The day is approaching when people will be able to download movies and games with the same ease they do albums, at which point these companies will start hunting around for a big cautionary scalp to use as a deterrent, just as the music industry did.

But in this age of unsecured wireless connections, surely there's a defence in wireless hijacking? "For sure, but that doesn't mean the defence would necessarily succeed," noted Smith. "For copyright infringement or defamation the claimants would almost certainly get access to the defendant's computer hard drive. That might contain copies of files, or of log data corresponding with the alleged activity; and even if those had been deleted, forensic recovery techniques might reveal them, or at least might reveal evidence that suspicious deletions had taken place."

And so the numerous recipients of these 'volume litigation' letters find themselves with a Hobson's choice: pay the £600 settlement or risk becoming the one in a thousand the lawyers decide to make an example of. Either way, it's a costly decision.