ACS:Law stops seeking money from file sharers

ACS:Law, a firm that sent out letters to alleged file sharers, has told a court that it is no longer seeking money from the people it was accusing of piracy.

For more than a year now, ACS:Law has been under scrutiny for its target of supposed illegal downloaders.

In January 2010, Which? Computer highlighted the fact that ACS:Law was sending out letters to people oblivious of offences occurred, while the BPI criticised the mass mail-outs, explaining that it wasn't its "favoured approach" to stopping online piracy.

Immense hassle

A massive data leak from the company in September 2010 brought ACS:Law back into the news and since then there have been doubts about the company's practices, which had been working on behalf of its client MediaCAT.

In court this week, ACS:Law announced that it has now stopped actively pursuing 27 people for copyright infringement.

A statement by solicitor and boss of ACS:Law Andrew Crossley, said about the turnaround: "I have ceased my work... I have been subject to criminal attack. My e-mails have been hacked. I have had death threats and bomb threats."

"It has caused immense hassle to me and my family."

Judge Birss allowed the case to be discontinued but wasn't happy with the way it was handled, saying in court: "I want to tell you that I am not happy. I am getting the impression with every twist and turn since I started looking at these cases that there is a desire to avoid any judicial scrutiny."

While Crossley has denied this is the case, he did note that there are no new letters pending to be sent out to file sharers.

Via BBC News and TorrentFreak