Sued for copyright infringement.
Sued for copyright infringement.
Author
Discussion

ALittleEXcited

Original Poster:

20,589 posts

225 months

Saturday 5th June 2010
quotequote all
Letter from ACS Law this morning, £295 to settle out of court for downloading a music file over bittorrent.

Any ideas as to legality, quick Google suggests such letters have little validity in law?

It would appear there has been some sort of court case involving Sky and a few other ISPs.

Sheets Tabuer

21,485 posts

245 months

Saturday 5th June 2010
quotequote all
Ignore it, a common scare tactic in the hope you will pay up, I'm surprised it didn't say it was porn that usually does the trick.

Eggman

1,253 posts

241 months

Saturday 5th June 2010
quotequote all
If I were you I would Google 'ACS Law' and then decide what to do.

twingo100

22 posts

216 months

supertouring

2,228 posts

263 months

Saturday 5th June 2010
quotequote all
Sheets Tabuer said:
Ignore it, a common scare tactic in the hope you will pay up, I'm surprised it didn't say it was porn that usually does the trick.
And gay porn at that!

mkopc167

1,998 posts

232 months

Saturday 5th June 2010
quotequote all
ALittleEXcited said:
Letter from ACS Law this morning, £295 to settle out of court for downloading a music file over bittorrent.

Any ideas as to legality, quick Google suggests such letters have little validity in law?

It would appear there has been some sort of court case involving Sky and a few other ISPs.
I received exactly the same letter this morning! Out of interest is your broadband provider Sky?

al1991

4,552 posts

210 months

Saturday 5th June 2010
quotequote all
If I tell you what to do will you introduce me to the ladies in your profile wink

TheCarpetCleaner

7,294 posts

232 months

Sunday 6th June 2010
quotequote all
What music file was it out of interest?

They only seem to target music from smaller unknown artists

Phooey

13,876 posts

199 months

Sunday 6th June 2010
quotequote all
al1991 said:
If I tell you what to do will you introduce me to the ladies in your profile wink
+1

bobfather

11,197 posts

285 months

Sunday 6th June 2010
quotequote all
Just trying to be the voice of reason here judge

You stole things and now the authorities are trying to correct your behaviour. I'm sure you could afford 79p per track. Why is it that people think this isn't theft but would complain bitterly if someone stole something from them.

ETA a friend of mine has just discovered that their iTunes account has been hacked and hundreds of tracks have been purchased by someone else leaving her hundreds of pounds out of pocket. I see similarity here. Theft is theft.

Edited by bobfather on Sunday 6th June 10:48

eldar

25,306 posts

226 months

Sunday 6th June 2010
quotequote all
bobfather said:
Just trying to be the voice of reason here judge

You stole things and now the authorities are trying to correct your behaviour. I'm sure you could afford 79p per track. Why is it that people think this isn't theft but would complain bitterly if someone stole something from them.
Ah, 'The Authorities'. A bunch of solicitors being investigated for sending out speculative invoices.

Would you pay up?

TheCarpetCleaner

7,294 posts

232 months

Sunday 6th June 2010
quotequote all
bobfather said:
Just trying to be the voice of reason here judge

You stole things and now the authorities are trying to correct your behaviour. I'm sure you could afford 79p per track. Why is it that people think this isn't theft but would complain bitterly if someone stole something from them.

ETA a friend of mine has just discovered that their iTunes account has been hacked and hundreds of tracks have been purchased by someone else leaving her hundreds of pounds out of pocket. I see similarity here. Theft is theft.

Edited by bobfather on Sunday 6th June 10:48
aCS law are not the authorities

bonsai

2,015 posts

210 months

Sunday 6th June 2010
quotequote all
bobfather said:
ETA a friend of mine has just discovered that their iTunes account has been hacked and hundreds of tracks have been purchased by someone else leaving her hundreds of pounds out of pocket. I see similarity here. Theft is theft.

Edited by bobfather on Sunday 6th June 10:48
There's no similarity there unless you're looking at it in the vaguest most wishy-washy sense possible.

It would be similar to P2P if someone had copied her iTunes library, leaving hers intact and not buying any more tracks or depriving her financially.

Edited by bonsai on Sunday 6th June 10:55

Rusty Arches

694 posts

203 months

Sunday 6th June 2010
quotequote all
bobfather said:
Just trying to be the voice of reason here judge

You stole things
No he didn't.

Downloading is not theft.

Amused2death

2,526 posts

226 months

Sunday 6th June 2010
quotequote all
Surely it is the person uploading the file that has broken the copyright.

They are the ones who do not have the neccessary permissions to distribute it.

Ergo...Downloading it is not a crime...uploading it is.

(Or that's how I see it...though I could have got it all horribly wrong smile )

bobfather

11,197 posts

285 months

Sunday 6th June 2010
quotequote all
Rusty Arches said:
bobfather said:
Just trying to be the voice of reason here judge

You stole things
No he didn't.

Downloading is not theft.
In your view and I'm sure many others, you want something that someone else owns and you don't want to pay for it. It may be generally acceptable but everyone including the OP knows that downloading copyright material without permission is wrong. People do it because they are very likely to get away with it, that doesn't make it right.

cazzer

8,883 posts

278 months

Sunday 6th June 2010
quotequote all
Remember kids, Home Taping is Killing Music.

"You wouldn't steal a car"...etc....

No but if I could download a ferrari and leave the owner with the original I would smile

trooperiziz

9,457 posts

282 months

Sunday 6th June 2010
quotequote all
bobfather said:
Rusty Arches said:
bobfather said:
Just trying to be the voice of reason here judge

You stole things
No he didn't.

Downloading is not theft.
In your view and I'm sure many others, you want something that someone else owns and you don't want to pay for it. It may be generally acceptable but everyone including the OP knows that downloading copyright material without permission is wrong. People do it because they are very likely to get away with it, that doesn't make it right.
Regardless of that, I think the main point here is that I can guarantee that the OP has been accused of downloading a music track that he has never heard of. ACS are a scam outfit, pure and simple.

RizzoTheRat

29,030 posts

222 months

Sunday 6th June 2010
quotequote all
Amused2death said:
Surely it is the person uploading the file that has broken the copyright.

They are the ones who do not have the neccessary permissions to distribute it.

Ergo...Downloading it is not a crime...uploading it is.

(Or that's how I see it...though I could have got it all horribly wrong smile )
However using a bittorrent means you upload the same track you're downloading

Amused2death

2,526 posts

226 months

Sunday 6th June 2010
quotequote all
RizzoTheRat said:
Amused2death said:
Surely it is the person uploading the file that has broken the copyright.

They are the ones who do not have the neccessary permissions to distribute it.

Ergo...Downloading it is not a crime...uploading it is.

(Or that's how I see it...though I could have got it all horribly wrong smile )
However using a bittorrent means you upload the same track you're downloading
Good point...hadn't thought of that. banghead