File-sharing lawyers face warning letter ban

 

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By Nicole Kobie

Posted on 24 Jan 2011 at 18:43

A judge has threatened to ban a controversial law firm from sending letters to people it has accused of illegal file-sharing.

ACS Law has been sending out letters demanding settlements of hundreds of pounds to people accused of illegally downloading copyrighted porn films.

The law firm was in the Patent County Court today to try to have more than two dozen cases against alleged illegal file-sharers discontinued. The defendants’ legal teams are arguing against the discontinuation, in the hope of claiming costs from the claimants.

Should I not say in light of these circumstances that MediaCAT should stop sending letters?

One reason for the possible discontinuation is procedural problems surrounding the case, leading Judge Birss to consider imposing a ban on the letters from ACS client MediaCAT until the issue is resolved.

“Maybe it would be better if that stopped until you got your tackle together,” he suggested, adding that ACS and MediaCAT would be able to restart the letter campaign after they proved to the court that they could do it properly.

ACS Law solicitor Andrew Crossley left after lunch due to family health problems, but submitted a written statement to the court claiming his firm had every intention of stopping its anti-piracy work, saying it was interfering with his other legal commitments and had led to threats against his family.

Crossley also claimed the insurance costs at his firm had jumped from £15,000 a year to £120,000 following a distributed-denial-of-service attack on his company's website, which led to his email correspondence being leaked online.

Despite telling the court that ACS Law’s anti-piracy days were over, Crossley’s own barrister later argued against Judge Birss’ proposed ban on letter sending, saying he had no idea what the absent solicitor planned to do in the future and suggested the judge didn’t have jurisdiction.

“If you’re not going to do it anyway, it shouldn’t be any detriment to your client [to be put under such a ban]," Judge Birss argued.

Letter campaign continues

Birss noted the rights licensee MediaCAT clearly intended to keep sending letters after last week's news that a second firm called GCB Limited had restarted the campaign. It has since stopped, but Birss said that showed MediaCAT wasn't finished yet.

"Should I not say in light of these circumstances that MediaCAT should stop sending letters?" he asked. "It would certainly be an extraordinary action to take but this is an extraordinary case."

Birss noted that it was odd that MediaCAT wanted to keep sending letters despite its "perfectly candid acceptance" that the case was flawed. The judge suggested the threat of legal action detailed in the letters was not being backed up by actual court cases, saying it was "flirting with abuse of process".

In the end, Judge Birss made no decision about preventing ACS Law or MediaCAT from sending out such letters, saying a decision about that and the discontinuation would likely come by the end of the week.