Have you received a letter from Davenport Lyons or ACS?

[slash181]

Originally Posted by Rob M

Do me a favour and watch the language please, I know it's being caught be the swear filter but there's still no need for it.

ah sorry dude, presumed that it was kk. my bad.

steve

[Raistlin]

Thx

[slash181]

Originally Posted by eth01

they probably do have some form of "evidence". but i wouldn't take this with a pinch of salt IMO. it could come and bite you on the bum..

(speaking from experience)

yeh could do, but trying to sort out an Legal Scam is gonna be hard. its amazing how the only two games that ive heard that they've tried doing people for is that pinball one and test drive.
they invade our privacy by watching what we are doing on the internet and our isp's dont even know about it.
but they have been updated on the fact whats happening also OFFCOM has been in liason with the CAB over this now this past few weeks since this scam has been going on
so we need to act!

[Toto]

Originally Posted by slash181

yeh could do, but trying to sort out an Legal Scam is gonna be hard. its amazing how the only two games that ive heard that they've tried doing people for is that pinball one and test drive.
they invade our privacy by watching what we are doing on the internet and our isp's dont even know about it.
but they have been updated on the fact whats happening also OFFCOM has been in liason with the CAB over this now this past few weeks since this scam has been going on
so we need to act!

Some mixed ideas here. You can't have your privacy invaded if you share rights protected software over public torrents or peer-to-peer networks.

You keep using the word scam, at least in two posts, but this is about unlawful re-distribution of copyright protected material. I don't like this ambulance chasing method employed by solicitors any more than the next man, but the only way you may win this is by having a very good solicitor who's an expert in this area. Sadly though, this is a civil matter, so you'll have to pay for that kind of expertise.

Some good honest advice here. If you can't afford representation talk to them now, make them a reasonable offer of settlement, and for goodness sake learn from this.

Unless there is a win in the courts for the user, and such a win sets a legal president (sp?) then more and more of these letters are going to be sent, and people are going to be out of pocket for the sake of spending a few pounds on a rather poor software title.

I think its fair to say, we've just had the bill for all those so called free lunches.

[slash181]

Originally Posted by Toto

Some mixed ideas here. You can't have your privacy invaded if you share rights protected software over public torrents or peer-to-peer networks.

You keep using the word scam, at least in two posts, but this is about unlawful re-distribution of copyright protected material. I don't like this ambulance chasing method employed by solicitors any more than the next man, but the only way you may win this is by having a very good solicitor who's an expert in this area. Sadly though, this is a civil matter, so you'll have to pay for that kind of expertise.

Some good honest advice here. If you can't afford representation talk to them now, make them a reasonable offer of settlement, and for goodness sake learn from this.

Unless there is a win in the courts for the user, and such a win sets a legal president (sp?) then more and more of these letters are going to be sent, and people are going to be out of pocket for the sake of spending a few pounds on a rather poor software title.

I think its fair to say, we've just had the bill for all those so called free lunches.

well okay obviously im going to be open to opinions and what others are saying as i am trying to sort this out for myself and everyone.
BUT.....it is a scam, if you where illegally sharing you would get a warning from your isp! not anyone else as its on their service your doing this. even virgin have said themselves do not pay!
heres a few links of other forums that i have studied, and i advise you also to study as tbh i think everyone has no idea (including myself) what is happening, im just going by what my isp has told me.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...formation.html

http://torrentfreak.com/this-is-how-...u-downloading/

http://www.p2pnet.net/story/12361

http://www.slyck.com/forums/viewtopi...8764241f43ed34

i would like just to say one thing, please dont try to be negative on this situation i am just like you and the next person around,trying to sort this out.
we need to start standing up to this and show em, i have freinds in germany saying that it happened over there for a few years and if you ignored the third letter nothing happens......not sure if its the same here.

if you have any advise, contacts, or you wanna just help not come out with sarcy comments cause it does not help im here to be helped and to help you guys too.

********this is not aimed at any post current just wanted to say before some guy finds this and just doesnt take it serious, as it is lol but thank you for everyones advise.....good luck in court and all the rest BUT LETS GET 'EM*********

[Toto]

Originally Posted by slash181

well okay obviously im going to be open to opinions and what others are saying as i am trying to sort this out for myself and everyone.
BUT.....it is a scam, if you where illegally sharing you would get a warning from your isp! not anyone else as its on their service your doing this. even virgin have said themselves do not pay!
heres a few links of other forums that i have studied, and i advise you also to study as tbh i think everyone has no idea (including myself) what is happening, im just going by what my isp has told me.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...formation.html

http://torrentfreak.com/this-is-how-...u-downloading/

http://www.p2pnet.net/story/12361

http://www.slyck.com/forums/viewtopi...8764241f43ed34

i would like just to say one thing, please dont try to be negative on this situation i am just like you and the next person around,trying to sort this out.
we need to start standing up to this and show em, i have freinds in germany saying that it happened over there for a few years and if you ignored the third letter nothing happens......not sure if its the same here.

if you have any advise, contacts, or you wanna just help not come out with sarcy comments cause it does not help im here to be helped and to help you guys too.

********this is not aimed at any post current just wanted to say before some guy finds this and just doesnt take it serious, as it is lol but thank you for everyones advise.....good luck in court and all the rest BUT LETS GET 'EM*********

Two things.

Virgin Media have never said do not pay, they, and other ISP's have been served with court order forcing them to give up customer data.

Secondly, and I emphasize this clearly, it is not a scam, because if it were there wouldn't have been such large fines dished out to people by the courts, and I am not just talking about Davenport Lyons.

You want advice?.....go talk to a solicitor, we are up against the big boys now. Rights holders are bypassing the ISP's user policies because they have come out and said that they don't police the Internet, if you don't believe me go ask the head of Carphone Warehouse. Whilst the £16,000 fine against one file sharer was not a precedent (thanks forevarwar), it is certainly an eye opener, especially as the game company got a whacking share of that against the value and quality of the title shared.

There are a couple of posters here with some consumer advice experience, popper comes to mind, and having scanned through those articles, all of which I have read before at some time or another there is the possibility that some facts from those articles may help some "victims".

The truth though is simple, file sharers beware, you're going to be out of pocket.

[slash181]

Originally Posted by Toto

Two things.

Virgin Media have never said do not pay, they, and other ISP's have been served with court order forcing them to give up customer data.

Secondly, and I emphasize this clearly, it is not a scam, because if it were there wouldn't have been such large fines dished out to people by the courts, and I am not just talking about Davenport Lyons.

You want advice?.....go talk to a solicitor, we are up against the big boys now. Rights holders are bypassing the ISP's user policies because they have come out and said that they don't police the Internet, if you don't believe me go ask the head of Carphone Warehouse. Whilst the £16,000 fine against one file sharer was not a precedent (thanks forevarwar), it is certainly an eye opener, especially as the game company got a whacking share of that against the value and quality of the title shared.

There are a couple of posters here with some consumer advice experience, popper comes to mind, and having scanned through those articles, all of which I have read before at some time or another there is the possibility that some facts from those articles may help some "victims".

The truth though is simple, file sharers beware, you're going to be out of pocket.

ever had a letter toto?

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by Toto

The truth though is simple, file sharers beware, you're going to be out of pocket.

Thats why i NEVER EVER use torrents any more. Its SSL newsgroups all the way for me.

[slash181]

look its a scam face it, they got the date wrong in which the game was release, they havnt signed it lawfully, and its all over the place. the mojority of the letter talks bout them gettin money, they want full credit/debit card details

[Kymmy]

You have a choice... ignore it and wait for a court summons, if you don't want it to go that far then contact the company....

Just remember that you;ve put information on this forum using your IP admitting that you did download the game illegally All it takes is another court order to get the IP

[slash181]

lol well tbh i didnt cause i never shared it, i never share my torrents they are all for personal use. so how sure are you there is gonna be a court summoning

[Kymmy]

How do you know there won't be??? The news reports prove that companies have done so in the past and are planning to do so in the future..

---------- Post added at 15:18 ---------- Previous post was at 15:13 ----------

Originally Posted by slash181

ive just had a letter sayin i have to pay £526 for download test drive unlimited in feb 08,........................

The letter is stating that you downloaded it, not shared it...

Originally Posted by slash181

now the thing is yes i did d/l but not in 08 but in 07 probably july-ish

Direct admission that you did download it

Originally Posted by slash181

and its legal for personal use

In the UK since when???????????

[brundles]

I think that scam might be a bit strong a word. You yourself have admitted downloading the game they have identified - the date stamps might not match, but they've obviously found the suspect they were looking for.

I'll agree it's possible that they're hoping for everyone to pay up rather than go through court (which costs them money too) but scam implies they're just making things up to con people - which they're clearly not.

It might also be worth highlighting that the warnings from the ISP are only part of an agreement between SOME ISPs and SOME rights holders. There is nothing to stop other rights holders (as is the case here) going through the courts to force release of the data from any ISP - at which point you will not get any notification from the ISP.

It's possible that the company paid by the rights holders hasn't done the best job in the world (as hinted by the CAG thread you linked to) but don't think for one minute that means it's a scam.

Any attempt to fight through the courts here would rely on proving evidence faulty rather than proving innocence - dodgy ground to say the least. All that will do is force them to up the quality of work done and in turn the size of the first instance out of court settlement figure asked for.

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by slash181

lol well tbh i didnt cause i never shared it,

http://torrentfreak.com/why-bittorrent-works/

Once you have a little piece of the file, your BitTorrent client tries to find other people who might be interested in the pieces you have. The BitTorrent protocol works as a tit-for-tat game, you only upload pieces to people who offer something to you. The more you upload to others, the more you receive.

So you did share

[brundles]

Originally Posted by slash181

lol well tbh i didnt cause i never shared it, i never share my torrents they are all for personal use. so how sure are you there is gonna be a court summoning

Whether you shared it on upload or not (and unless you're happy with abysmal download speeds (i.e. < 2K/s) you probably did upload too even if only while downloading), that doesn't mean the "honeytrap" wasn't in the swarm merrily handing you pieces of the game and logging your IP both in the torrent requests for the pieces and in the acks.