Have you received a letter from Davenport Lyons or ACS? - Page 33

ljc · 30-03-2009, 21:44

all three letters said they want me to pay, i phoned them today to state that i wasnt goimg to pay. how did you manage to stop them sending you the letters?

penumbra · 30-03-2009, 21:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by ljc

all three letters said they want me to pay, i phoned them today to state that i wasnt goimg to pay. how did you manage to stop them sending you the letters?

Luck.

I've not noticed any particular pattern between those who have had their case dropped and those who just keep bouncing back and forth.

ljc · 30-03-2009, 21:53

thanks. will let you know if i recieve any more letters. a solicitor told me to look out for the court papers as they have to send these before the court date, but in the next breath he said that you wont recieve any!

minimum · 30-03-2009, 22:08

If you didn't do it, just stick it out and reply saying so. That is all I did. Try not to worry too much. The only other people I've heard of them dropping the case for have been high profile so I may be the first of many, after all there has been a lot of attention given to this by the media.

TheDaddy · 31-03-2009, 07:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by minimum

Please don't ignore the letters. Write back telling them what they want to know and you might be alright. I have a feeling they will take someone to court but it is more likely to be the ones who ignore them.

They have taken at least 1 person to court and won

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7568642.stm

Your right though, she didn't turn up to defend herself, meaning the court had little choice but to find against her, something they surprisingly chose not to advertise when falsely claiming they had won a 'landmark' victory, oh and they also lied about how much they won as well!

Annoyingly these shysters are making a real killing now, they have sent out thousands of letters

Of course, this probably means that Evil Angel is only getting $50 (or maybe even less) per "settlement" leaving somewhere in the range of $700 (depends on the exchange rate) for Davenport Lyons and DigiProtect to split. For doing what? Getting some IP addresses and sending out auto-generated form letters. Nice margins, but sort of proves that these settlements have nothing to do with compensating the content creator.

There was a government petition, unfortunately it wasn't very well advertised and only a couple of hundred people signed it

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/InfComISPDatProt/

penumbra · 31-03-2009, 10:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

They have taken at least 1 person to court and won

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7568642.stm

Bit of a misnomer to call that "winning". You can't really win anything when there wasn't a competition in the first place.

As you correctly said - it was a default judgement. Nothing meaningful about it whatsoever.

Toto · 31-03-2009, 17:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by penumbra

Bit of a misnomer to call that "winning". You can't really win anything when there wasn't a competition in the first place.

As you correctly said - it was a default judgement. Nothing meaningful about it whatsoever.

I'd call a fine in the thousands meaningful.

**Chris** · 31-03-2009, 18:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toto

I'd call a fine in the thousands meaningful.

It wasn't a fine. You don't get fined as a result of being sued over copyright infringement. The person who ignored all DL's letters, and ignored the court papers, and failed to turn up in court, was therefore not present to argue against DL's claim for thousands in damages and costs. The judge had no alternative but to award what DL was asking for. Damages and costs, not a fine.

Toto · 31-03-2009, 18:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

It wasn't a fine. You don't get fined as a result of being sued over copyright infringement. The person who ignored all DL's letters, and ignored the court papers, and failed to turn up in court, was therefore not present to argue against DL's claim for thousands in damages and costs. The judge had no alternative but to award what DL was asking for. Damages and costs, not a fine.

OK, its not a fine, its a default judgement.

Moving on......

**Chris** · 31-03-2009, 18:34

No, not moving on, thanks. You're missing the point. Davenport Lyons are relying on people misunderstanding the situation to get them to cough up. Calling the outcome of a court hearing a 'fine' when it isn't any such thing only serves to make it all sound that much more scary. Fines are what you get when you're found guilty of an offence in a criminal court. That is not the process that's being discussed here.

Don't do DL's job for them.

TheNorm · 31-03-2009, 18:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

.... Fines are what you get when you're found guilty of an offence in a criminal court. ....

cough... not for traffic offences ... /cough

Toto · 31-03-2009, 19:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

No, not moving on, thanks. You're missing the point. Davenport Lyons are relying on people misunderstanding the situation to get them to cough up. Calling the outcome of a court hearing a 'fine' when it isn't any such thing only serves to make it all sound that much more scary. Fines are what you get when you're found guilty of an offence in a criminal court. That is not the process that's being discussed here.

Don't do DL's job for them.

I'm not doing their job for them, nor do I wish too. I just worry about some punters coming here, thinking that not responding to a letter from D/L will mean the problem will go away.....it clearly didn't for that poor woman.

There's plenty of sound advice in this thread......one of which I got awarded post of the month for some time back.

I just want to bring a small amount of balance here, in the hope that those who are innocent of such claims, get the outcome they deserve, nothing more.

theasix · 31-03-2009, 19:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by minimum

....
Just an after thought - anyone who has the letter asking for router details and an explanation as to how it could have happened should reply with the information and they might get a nice surprise too

Wish I knew that before I sent my letter. I wrote that I did get an advice from lawyer and he told me that I have no obligation to give them any details they asked for.

Still waiting what they're gonna do now..

**Chris** · 31-03-2009, 19:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheNorm

cough... not for traffic offences ... /cough

Yes, but we were talking about court appearances, not fixed penalties.

Tapps · 31-03-2009, 21:27

They took my friend to court and he got a massive fine. Lawdit were representing in court and lost because DL managed to convince the Judge he acted unreasonably. Lawdit's advice at the end of the case was to change address quickly so they can't catch him or declare bankruptcy!