By Mark Ballard for The
Register.
This story has been reproduced with permission.
Law firm Davenport Lyons will use this case, its first "volume"
job to stalk file sharers, to launch a specialist practice. A
partner at the firm, who preferred to remain anonymous for
"security reasons" said Davenport had other publishers in the
pipeline.
File sharers were reported under court orders served on 18 ISPs
at Davenport's request after computer forensic experts associated
their IP addresses as sources for downloaders of Dream Pinball 3D,
a computer game that's unleased in the UK - it goes on sale in
June.
Letters sent to 500 file sharers in recent weeks recommended
paying a £600 fine for sharing the £16.99 computer game on a
peer-to-peer file sharing networks. Failure to pay would result in
prosecution and potential court costs of "tens of thousands of
pounds".
Harry Bilbao, who has received a letter from Davenport, dated 6
March, which accused him of file-sharing, said in an email to
The Register: "BIG problem is... I have no clue when
it comes to law, I have no idea where I stand. Can you help?"
He said he had no knowledge of the game, had found there was a
virus on his computer, had appealed against the threat and supplied
evidence that there were viruses around that could commandeer your
machine.
"I have looked for the game on my computer and I don't have
it... And I don't remember ever playing it as I don't like
pinball," he wrote.
Davenport replied in a letter dated 21 March: "In relation to
your claim that your computer was hacked into, we regret that the
security of your computer is not our concern. It is your
responsibility to ensure that your computer is protected at all
times."
The law firm gave Bilbao seven days to pay and sign a
declaration promising never to share computer games again.
Davenport has a phone service for people worried about the
threatened action, but the firm has told staff not to tell anyone
their names. The letters they send out are not named.
A Davenport partner told The Register: "We don't
give out names to infringers because we don't want to end up
getting abuse on the phone."
The partner, and another who spoke about the campaign, said they
were also worried about being threatened or spammed, and were
worried about the welfare of their female employees.
But they admitted that the only calls that gave them concern had
been ones from people demanding that they "speak with the engineer
and not the oily rag".
In one instance, a file sharer had appeared at Davenport's
offices, he said, although in this case it was a woman who just
wanted some answers.
The partner refused to say how much his firm was being paid for
pursuit of the file sharers, but the letter sent to them said £250
of the £600 fine being levied against them was to cover the
solicitor's fee.
Dirk Hassinger, sales director at Zuxxex Entertainment AG, which
holds the European licence for Dream Pinball 3D, said it had tried
to find lawyers prepared to charge low fees because he didn't want
to "bankrupt" file sharers.
© The Register
2007
