Davenport Lyons going against file sharers

[Begbie]

Hi



Just wanted to make you all aware for those of you who are unaware of the following:



Some customers who have broadband have accessed web sites and downloaded games that are covered under copyright laws. As these customers have broken the copyright law they are being sent letters from a Solicitor called Davenport Lyons requesting they pay a sum of money which is as much as £600.00. A number of these customers have contacted ourselves to advise that they believe that we have breached the data protection laws by disclosing information on them.



We have disclosed these customers details due to being served with a court order. Therefore, should any customers call or write we can advise them that the reason the information has been supplied is due to Sky being served with a court order and that should they require any further information they must contact Davenport Lyons. Sky is not in anyway involved other than complying to the court order served.



Security have added a note onto 'the system' for those customers who’s details have been disclosed due to the court order.



Note to be added to 'the system' for court order:



Address and contact details for this customer have been provided to Davenport Lyons Solicitors acting on behalf of ______________________ following a court order received by xxxx (a xxx company). Complying with this court order is mandatory by law.

Thought I would pass this on.

 

[Ice Rich]

I've rad a lot of people getting these letters but I don't actually understand why. Have I got this right:

The people (who got the letters), used torrents to download a game (an Atari one), the host of the file was by someone collecting all the I.P's of users downloading and then contacted the ISP for account holders details?

Could this ever happen to Rapidshare?

Thanks

 

[Energize]

I've been wondering about this for a while. What stops the ISP intercepting the SSL certificate from the server?

Asymmetric encryption, the keys sent accross the connection cannot be used to decrypt the data, only encrypt it.

 

[dunker]

they base these "losses" on the theory that if people could'nt download it freely then they'd buy it instead, that's just bonkers. they ar'nt losing a penny i think.

 

[Begbie]

Could this ever happen to Rapidshare?

Thanks

I doubt it very much so, much harder to trace.

 

[bigredshark]

It is extortion, and it probably would stand up as that in court as it is rather blatant!

The letter says that you are guilty and must pay them or they will take you to court. You cannot ask someone for money as an alternative to taking them to court. That is the literal definition of extortion.

This is basically true, as much as I hate the idiots who got caught and think they should pay up and shut up as they broke the law, the letters sent out are legally on thin ice in terms of extortion, demanding money with menaces etc...