Infringement of Copyright Notice - 'Two Worlds'

[xstarbuckx]

It is real but they are using a bully technique as they know it wouldn't stand up in court if we have all recived the same letter you will see that the forensic IT experts used are logistep I think someone posted this but a quick search on them shows that logistep in both Italy and Switzerland have been issued cease and desist orders as the way they are collecting data has been deamed illeagle in these countries.
Logistep make a business out of selling information to companies about infridgments by monitoring p2p sharing.
Now chances are if they've been hit with this in other contries it wont be long until the same happens here.
My sugestion is to respond to the mail stating you have not done this etc you most likely will never hear from them again but if you do Id send another letter stating that you know about logistep and its dodgy dealings.
Just ignoring the letter could be big trouble. IF they do take further action a court would see no response as a bad thing.

Heres the part that interested me
"Lawyers Davenport Lyons acting for the copyright holders in the UK show the court ‘evidence’ from Logistep, saying they need it for a criminal case, so that they can obtain a court order. Once they have the order to force the ISP to hand over the alleged file-sharer’s personal details, they pursue a purely civil action to get compensation."

It is not possible to get the information they have in a civil matter the court would only allow them the info if it was a criminal matter.

A wild guess from me is that Davenport have given up on this and so a smaller company has taken it up trying to make cash.
I run a gaming site and know about South peak/reality pump/zuxxez's (whatever name they go by) dealings. They are a small company and to be honest they are probably just holding on in this recession they have had a few games to date that have flopped so its my guess that they are desperate for cash.
Im not against taking action for over piracy as I said I run a gaming site and would hate to see my hobby distroyed but this inder handed dealings are just wrong
The funiest thing to me is that I have Two Worlds on the 360 and it WAS my favourite game of all time and it did bad but I championed the game lol guess thats going to change

[u1jd]

The more i think and look at the letters i think it may actually be legit, i do however have some serious questions about the credibility of the whole thing.

Seriously have no idea what to do. Anyone got any advice

[snookersport]

In reply to your post.

I too have received a letter of infringement copyright from ACS Law asking me to pay £665.00 for accusations of downloading Dream Pinball 3D over a year ago which I have no involvement in.

I've found that looking on a lot of websites they have been requesting different amounts some £665 some £785 and other requests asking for £800 "seems fishy*

I am not a gamer so have no interest in pinball games but have done abit of research on the company and they look to be a very small company chancing their arm sending 1000s of letters out hoping someone will pay up to make a quick buck.

I would really appreciate if you woant to contact directly as I only received the letter this morning again my ISP is Virgin and they are saying virgin has Passed my details onto them after charging a fee.

I have been on this all night and awaiting a call from Virgin tomorrow and I will send a follow up to their letter and drop an email obviously in denial of these accusations.

I think we should all stick together on this and find out where the these false allegations are coming from.

[Zeriam]

If the letter was not sent certified/registered mail nor with a return receipt nor with delivery signature/confirmation, DO NOT RESPOND TO IT. Anything sent regular mail can not be used in court. There is no proof you even received it without it being sent with some sort of certification or confirmation. I'm not sure of what terms the UK uses for their certified mail.

[saywhat]

Hi Guys

I also got this letter today as well from ACS:LAW claiming I made available for upload "Two Worlds" and although it seems to be a scam, its not a scam in the normal sense, it appears to be an attempt to extract money by the use of some underhand (but still legal) tactics.

I have spent the last 4 hours doing some research on this, I am not saying I am an expert by any means,I am not, I am also not a legal expert but so far this is what I have found.

The letter sent to us looks to be in the same format as the Davenport Lyons (DL) cases, indeed it seems DL represented Reality Pump in the same manner in the past in cases for the same software publisher.

If you follow the links to the ACS Website in the letter you were sent you will see that they have indeed applied to the High Court to obtain the details of suspected file sharers, PDF attachments are available on their website with the High Court Orders.

Where do we proceed from here well a couple of pointers on some usefull information from the lawyers who represented many of those in the fight against Davenport Lyons

Frequently Asked Questions: File Sharing - Copyright Law Articles and News - Lawdit Reading Room

Also worth checking out

Have you received a letter from Davenport Lyons? - Page 35 - Cable Forum

Lots and lots of information on the above links.

The main thing is try not to worry too much, if you have done nothing wrong why pay, dont pay, but also dont ignore them, it would seem one tactic they use is to go after the ones that fail to respond as they know if your not going to show if they take you to court , they win by default.

Hope that helps a little

[snookersport]

Also According to sources dotting around the net they have taken five people to court so far and won all of the cases but this was simply because the defendants didn't bother to show up so they were found guilty by default.

As they have sent out many letters threatening court action and yet have only taken five people to court so far it would appear that they are only taking people to court who they believe won't turn up as if they did turn up and actually won that would set a precedent for all of the cases to follow.

There are also questions about how the data was gathered as IP addresses are seen as personal data and the company that has been gathering the addresses has been told to stop doing so. So if the information has been gathered illegally I don't think that it can be used in court.

Personally if it was me who was accused of this and I was innocent I'd write back to them stating so and that I wanted to see all of the evidence that they had on me so that I could prepare my defence. Hopefully that would show them that you are willing to fight this in court (even if you're not) and they'll move onto a weaker target.

Most probably is a scam to scare you into paying the money, Advise them
that if they intend of taking your wife to court, you are allowed copies of
their evidence, including communications with your ISP who will have traced
your IP. Ask for it to be sent to you within a certain time limit. Also
mention that until you recieve this information that no payment can be made
until you have concrete proof that you have indeed downloaded this
software..

[snookersport]

Do let me know How you get on with this as I have been on for hours trying to research to I may construct an email on the letter advising I will write to them in full to advise of wrongly accused Etc..

[necromancer]

Hey there, I too received the letter from acs:law and was quite shocked when my mum rang me whilst i was in college worried about this claim. (she was worried because she can't understand english that well and so just looked at the numbers and words that she undertood). I never heard about such payment methods anyway. I mean who's going to put their own details on a piece of paper and money to a company that doesnt sound too legitimate?
The worst thing is that i have no idea what the game 'Two Worlds' is. After some research i found out it came out for PC and Xbox. I am an avid gamer, and pay for everything i get, unless they're game trials (demos). I use steam and have paid for all the games there, i have xbox live and use gamerpoints to buy extra stuff. Also i have a big collection of PC games, all original and in their cases so it only seems natural to me that this company is completely out of its depth when it comes to analysing some of these cases, if not all.
I also dont understand why back in february 2008 my ISP (Tesco) did not contact me about anything. I am currently with Sky and have had no problems whatsoever.
This letter seems quite threatening and it seems that injustice and the way that industries deal with 'piracy' is undergoing a really bad turn for the worst.
Would like to know more about this, if anyone has any more information would be appreciated.
Also they cannot prove you received any letter if the letter you got was not sent by recorded delivery which means that you need to sign it before you actually get it.

Thank you

[snookersport]

Hi,

It's looking more like a scam isn't it from the sound of it. I mean come on we are all getting letters dated the same day in abundance. I think a reply would be the best thing but I ain't going to put my address on I think they must be picking people out at random here especially with different ISPs etc....

I think it might be worthwhile sending a reply and looking on the information we have gathered so far on this forum we have a pretty good case a non response might not go down well... Not sure if you can give eachothers email on here don't think you would be able to but supply a private message and we can all correspond on how we are going to tackle this...

Looking forward to hearing from you soon

[Richie]

I made a thread on The Consumer action group forums as I had a slight panic on as what to do and the guys there are quite seasoned as how to deal with Debt and harassment.

ACS:Law - The Consumer Forums

Seems ignoring for now isn't a option and imo I'm quite p***ed off at the fact I'm accused of such nonsense and then be told to pay an outrageous sum of money as well.

I'm reckoning ACS:Law phone line will be melting tomorrow ... oh how the receptionist will wish she/he never turned up

[snookersport]

Yeah,
I think your right I mean if we can find out how many people have received this letter I mean they can't take us all to court for something we haven't done. Seriously going to fight it all the way if I have to.

The thing is if there is no letter which has any recorded stickers on how can they track it? They say Dear/Sir Madam and have your address at the top.... I think it might be worth giving ACS Law a call in the morning damn straight.

[necromancer]

I mean, i have A-Level exams in the following two months, so i probably will not have time for this. Might go to citizens advice bureau but am not too worried. I mean surely german law doesnt necessarily apply to the uk and if this is just the beginning of the case as it seems, because so many people got the letter today, the perhaps some people will get its attention and defend us as a group or sth. I cant really say how many letters were received but i personally think that probably a lot of people will have them. Although, i advise no one to pay anything unless proven guilty in the High Court. I also heard some people say that if you reply to them they will not leave you alone and if you don't respond then they will assume that you haven't done anything. Not entirely sure how that words but nevertheless felt as if it should be said..

Goodnight, and take care. Hopefully by tommorrow there will be sme updates. Untill then take care.

[saywhat]

If anyone does decide to respond

Please be very careful what you say to them, do not state that you dont know who may downloaded the file ,or that someone may have used you WiFi access point (even though they may well have) as they may see this as an area to try to get you on.

They need to be able to prove that the account holder of the internet connection made the file available for upload or authorised someone else to do so, all they have as evidence is your IP address (from a company whose activities have been banned in at least 2 countries so far) , the IP address alone does not and can not prove that an individual made any file available for upload, the best advice seems to deny point blank if your not guilty. something like

"I did not make available for upload your clients work , I also did not authorise anyone else to do so" blah blah ,

if they write back continue with the same stance.

[snookersport]

HI All,

I''m going to bed now too I will keep an eye on threads tomorrow I am expecting a call from Virgin tomorrow morning So I will post any Replies I get I have decided not to write any replies as yet as alot of us are getting these letters they could be just trying to pick people out at random and then targeting people so I think best wait for the next few days.

Anybody want to private message please feel free with updates

[mishmash]

Two things here that might be useful

The Lucrative File Sharing Solicitors Game

and

Slyck.com • View topic - The official Davenport-Lyons/ACS:LAW lawsuit discussion