Friend "going to be sued" for downloading?

my mate at work got one of these letters 2 weeks ago from a london based soliciters acting on behalf of a german software company.

They basically said he'd downloaded a torrent and that they wanted £xxx off him or he'd end up in court.

Suffice to say, he tore the ****** up i think :D

No swearing, read the FAQ

Gilly

[edit]Don't bother, goodbye
 
Whilst there are no such things as punitive damages within the UK the CDPA does have a few different causes for action if you're downloading off the internet. Indeed, there are a few criminal offences listed, which can carry unlimited fines.

The easiest thing to do though would be to ignore the letter (especially if he didn't sign for it).

Someone mentioned the 'my wifi network is open' trick - and tbh there is no counter-defence to this at the moment. There is an exception under s28(A) CDPA for those that are a mere conduit (ie an ISP or if you're running a wireless network and you don't know who was using it). There is near nothing they can do to prove this wasn't the case.
 
chesterstu said:
LOL, i would have never thought of that. Next time i get letter off the Paypal's "Debt Recovery Agency", i may just do that.
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Personally I have never done it.

My dad carried on getting junk mail from a company like catalogues, he rang them and told them to stop but they carried on anyway.

We were getting crap all the time from them, until he boxed up all the big chunky catalogues they had sent along with a rather large piece of lead and sent it back to them.

No more junk ever again after that!
 
To the OP no way would I pay a solicitor I'd want the court to decide the amount if I did anything illegal. Solicitors can't decide punishment they have no legal basis to do so.

Take it to court.

As for the junk mail prob for the last 7 years I've been getting a dead womans catalogues. I've tried phoning was taken off the list but then returned to it after a few months :( I've also tried to take it back to the post office but they wouldn't take it as it "technically" was delivered apparently they have to go by house number instead of name so anyone can get anything sent to your letterbox or sign you up for all sorts of spam and you can't do anything about it.
 
Is it a letter or a claim form? Big difference. The latter is very serious, the former not so much - but don't just chuck it in the bin. File it until they send you (or your 'friend') another. You said it was a 'court order'? As in, an enforcement of something the court has already made judgment on, or what?
 
I'm not 100% sure on what he's been sent, I've given him a link to this thread. I'll speak to him tomorrow in more detail after he's read everyones replies.
 
I remember about 8 or so years ago my bro got one from the ISP saying you ahve been downloading such a game at such a time, and listed the files he downloaded. Similar thing really as he hadn't downloaded that game (even though he did download games though). It just say this is a breach of whatever and please could we stop this.

The letter went in the bin and nothing was heard of again.
 
I'd tell your "friend" not to worry about it. If the worst comes to the worst tell him you thought you were downloading a demo and link to all the other torrent demo sites out there.
 
geeza said:
Personally I have never done it.

My dad carried on getting junk mail from a company like catalogues, he rang them and told them to stop but they carried on anyway.

We were getting crap all the time from them, until he boxed up all the big chunky catalogues they had sent along with a rather large piece of lead and sent it back to them.

No more junk ever again after that!
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isnt that just shooting yourself in the foot with postage costs? :p
 
Yeah if they take someone to court ( not the supposed no service default judgement where basically the original letter was ignored) and they lost they are going to lose thier golden goose of free money.. .....thier letters break all the rules of pre-action protocol as well as dubious data collection methods....what licience do they hold to monitor peoples activities, they are not M15....lol
 
Psycho Sonny said:
how do you send something without paying? is that an option at the post office? or how do you cram these huge boxes into the post box?
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The junk mailers usually have Freepost addresses for returns so you use that.

I heard of someone who used to regularly send all the MorganStanley junk mail back to them incomplete. Apparently it only costs them a couple of pence to send each one out, but 30-odd pence to receive them back.

I heard of someone else who used to include the cost of the postage in pennies in the envelope, reasoning that the weight would take the cost into the £1+ area.
 
Rich_L said:
There have been a couple of successful civil cases for copyright infringement regarding downloading music, but they have relied on the person admitting that they had the file on their computer and they had downloaded ...
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Why oh why do these people admit to the crime. The best thing is to keep quiet. Play dumb. Dont admit to anything and just tell them (looking totally honest) that you have no idea what has happened. Stick to that story rigidly, UNLESS they have absolute proof that you did what they are saying.

Proving that you knowingly downloaded the file, with intent to evade paying for it would be an extremely messy task to prove. A lot of precedents would need to be set in the process.

With regards to people advising the defendent to buy the game and claim it was scratched so he downloaded it instead to play it as he was desperate to play it: this wouldnt work. The whole case hinges on the fact that they have your IP address. No doubt the date and time will also be recorded. If you buy the game a few weeks/months after downloading it and only after receiving court summons, then it will be obvious that you are lying and attempting to fabricate an excuse.

The best way is to play dumb and claim to not understand what the hell is going on. This way, should you be questioned, you wont slip up. Once it looks like they have you by the short and curlies and are intent on taking you down, then you might consider settling. Otherwise, let them prove their case.
 
snowdog said:
Make a pic of your behind.
Print it.
Write: Kiss my ***
Put in envelope.
Send back to Davenport Lyons.

Perhaps also send them one of them middle finger toys...
Also tell em their next letter will be used as toilet paper.
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That is an excellent method of dealing with these people.

If you want to take it a step further, you could use the letter as toilet paper, then send it back to them. :p
 
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