Spot on huckster - Once you agree to pay especially in writing, or make a payment, that could be construed as an admission of liability....don't. !

If anyone is really - really that concerned.... or even worried, always seek independent legal advice before doing anything which could jeopardise your interests.

Pedross

Before you are silly enough to enter into any payments, which would admit liability, I would have a read through the posts contained in the following link.

http://www.techdirt.com/blog.php?company=digiprotect

Do you realise that if you started to pay any sums and missed payments, they could then increase the amount due and may have an even better chance in court.

Andrew J. Crossley is the sole owner, it could be his middle name stands for Jonathon. ?

But please don't tell him I suggested this, or he may trace my IP and sue me for infingement. I would be so scared that I might lose a wink of sleep at night.: -- )

pedross - He has agreed to extend my 21 day dead line and as I seem to be a reasonable chap, as im on holiday next week and has suggested £40 for 10 months.

CMK - That's awfully decent and generous of him pedross... to suggest £40 for 10 months. I am off on holiday shortly also, do you think he may chip in a few quid towards my holiday as well.?

I recieved a phone call this afternoon from ACS Law , Johnathan, would not give surname due to data protection. He has agreed to extend my 21 day dead line and as I seem to be a reasonable chap, as im on holiday next week and has suggested £40 for 10 months. If it did go to court then DigiProtect would want the "full" £3000. He could not provide the torrent site as he did not have it.

Who has actually been able to get any legal advice and where from. I have passed on my details to my local Consumer Advice Center who is trying to investigate the claim.

I emailed them at info@acs-law.org.uk and received a standard acknowledgement. Since then I have heard nothing. They wont take this to Court, because their 'evidence' wont hold up.

This is not a scam, but rather a solicitors letter to scare people into paying up. In my case I was accused of downloading a hardcore gay porn film called 'Army f**kers' back in June 2008. At that time I had an unsecured wireless router. It maybe that this file was download by a third party in the street - the point is that it has to be proved that either you downloaded it yourself, or you gave permission to anyone who had access to your internet. At that time I was in Thailand.

There is a website (http://beingthreatened.yolasite.com/) which is also dealing with ACS Law.

Pedross

Why worry about it. It is an unproven allegation for which they would have to provide full details if they were to take you to court.

If you research into this, you will find that this is just a fishing exercise.

I also recieved a letter on 22/01/2010 giving 21 days to pay £400. I or someone at my IP address has been accused of downloading a file called Addicted to Base 2009 in March 2009. I have checked all pc's in my house and can not find the file. No one in my family can recall such a file either as it was such a long time ago. I have tried contacting someone at ACS Law acting on behalf of DigiProtect, but with no success instead I get the answer phone. I have even emailed and not had a reply. I went to a dropin advice center and they said to contact Trading Standards, Im still waiting after phoning on Monday for a reply. I contacted my ISP who verified the IP address as being used by my internet conection at the time of the alleged download. They said that it seemed strange that DigiProtect have not provided the name of the software to complete the download. After reading about these companies on the net the more angry I feel. Like most people Im lost as what to do next. Has anyone got any response from ACS Law?

They are just chancing their arm, so I would not worry about it.

Why not ask them for the ISP details as well as the time/date and duration of the download. You could then check with your internet provider.

If you read into this on various forums, I have not heard that anyone has been taken to court. Apparently the information that ACS are using to back up their allegation is dubious and could be easily defended if it got anywhere near a court.

Huckster

I've received a letter today giving me 21 days to pay £400 for file sharing The Very Best of Euphoric Dance Breakdown 2009 - this was allegedly done in March 2009.
How can they leave it this long before contacting you - neither myself or my husband has downloaded this, the children both say they haven't but as it is so long ago I have no way of checking.
I can't find anything to say anyone has been taken to court yet so I'm not going to pay - I will let you know what happens.
Has anyone else had a letter ?? What do you intend doing about it??

Not received any letter myself as I am not really into downloading. If you look at various online forums, thousands have, but no court action as yet.

The information they are using to make the allegation is dubious. They are sending the letters in the hope that enough people are silly enough to pay, so that they make enough money, not to get involved in expensive court proceedings.

Just do the sensible thing and bin the letter or just return with a note that the IP address and ISP shown do not relate to the address written to.

Has anyone got any further forward with this? What was the outcome?

Hoax or real???? We have had a letter the IP address is wrong and so is the ISP???

All comments and help much appreciated....

IP addresses are incredibly shaky evidence to obtain a judgement on copyright violations. It becomes even more so if the defendant was using a wireless router with their internet connection. Unless properly secured, these are very easy to break into and "piggy back" onto the connection.

ACS know this, the courts know this. ACS also know that if they ever did take it to court, short of an admission of guilt, they would have a torrid time trying to convince a judge of guilt, especially as the IP address is the ONLY piece of evidence they have.

The only advice I can offer is:

If you didn't do it, don't ignore the letters. Respond as soon as possible, stating that you didn't do it. Also state that if you continue to receive threatening letters you will take sanctions against them. As the other posters have said beingthreatened.com is a good source of information, as is slyck.com.

Skywalker

So their letter was never a demand, it was only an offer.

If you read the CAG site on this subject, this is going nowhere.

This company has now sent me another letter, saying that they are now withdrawing their offer to accept £500 - now they are demanding £600.

What a joke! I haven't replied in any way. But I look forward to the Court summons.

Hi

I have not had such a letter yet, but I have not registered with one of the Torrent download sites. I did read some press coverage on these awhile ago which put me off. The coverage concerned potential for being wrongly accused of downloading and breach of copyright.

It would be interesting to know from those posting, which Torrent site they have registered with? I am not a technology expert but I would suspect an IP address has been identified through your ISP & torrent site. Where did ACS law obtain the IP information. How can they be sure that the Torrent site attaches the correct IP address against the individual download record?

I would expect the torrent download company would have software enabled to protect the downloaders identity. Could such security mask or alter the IP address? If the software altered the IP address this could lead to wrongful accusations being made. Before any successful claim could be made by ACS Law they would have to be prove their case by producing very strong evidence, including witness by techical experts etc. Surely ACS Law should be suing the Torrent company and not pursuing individuals. I know these are file sharing sites but any copyright violation would not happen on any scale if the torrent company did not encourage the activity.

As CMK advises you could wait for the summons to arrive. The cost of taking any action due to the complexity of law should prohibit ACS Law from proceeding. If I was in this position and I was confident of my innocence, I would write to ACS law and ask them for the date/time, duration of the download and IP address, so that I could contact my ISP. At the same time I would deny the accusation based on the current facts known to me.

Huckster