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My friend was personally delivered a document, allegedly from a solicitor (ACS Law) saying that he downloaded a game called Dream Pinball 3D by Zuxxez Entertainment using an Internet file sharing network, demanding £600 or he will be sued in court for copyright infringement. The game is also produced under the company name of Topware Interactive.

Firstly I will note that my friend doesn’t like pinball games and doesn’t play them at all. Secondly you can download Dream Pinball 3D from the official website, you get one pinball table and I assume you then have to enter a serial number to unlock the other tables after purchase, which costs less than £10.

The law company in question have all my friend’s personal, private and confidential details from when he allegedly downloaded this game over a year ago at the time of writing including his IP address Etc. He was sharing a broadband connection using wireless networking and around this time someone managed to hack into his security enabled network, unlocking his wireless router allowing lots of people to share and access his Internet, we suspect from a nearby homeless hostel.

If my friend had downloaded this game, he didn’t play it and it’s certainly not installed on his PC now as there’s no remnants of it. If someone did download it, it’s perfectly legal unless the paid parts of the game are unlocked as it’s freely downloadable anyway. If someone else downloaded it while hacked into his wireless network, then it’s shouldn’t be his legal responsibility and this was actually ruled in a similar court hearing in Germany as it’s impossible to prove who actually downloaded the file on an internal network.

The £600 fine is terrible when there’s hardly a PC in the UK without some pirated software, music or videos on it and the pinball game itself costs less than £10 to buy. My friend certainly doesn’t share any files across the Internet in any way what-so-ever, so they can hardly say it’s cost them anything like £600. If everyone was brought to justice for piracy in Britain, most people in the UK would literally be prosecuted, so it’s obviously not feasible. It’s in my opinion very unfair that a small handful of very unfortunate, unlucky people are therefore being made scapegoats for the vast majority of Internet users who have done the same at some time or another. A previous court ruling has apparently now forced Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to hand over personal, private and confidential information about suspected file sharing offenders. In my friends case, this information was meant to be kept private and confidential at the time he signed up for BT Total Broadband and customers were not told officially of any change to this policy. It’s very worrying who else can also get hold of this personal information, perhaps for criminal purposes?

The UK government is understandably under of lot of pressure from the music industry to stop piracy across the Internet and is considering bringing out a 3 strikes and your out system for illegal file sharing / peer to peer file sharing / torrents. Offenders who are caught get 3 strikes, the 1st strike is just a simple written warning, the 2nd strike is a suspension of Internet service and the 3rd strike is a total ban on using the Internet. The government hasn’t decided if banning information should be shared amongst ISPs at present. If and when this new law comes into full force, it’s expected eventually to be brought in for all copyrighted computer material too, including computer games. I suspect the reason why it’s not the law yet is because the general public don’t want this enforcement action and it would make the government very unpopular, but eventually I believe it will come into force never-the-less. This system would be very unpopular amongst the British public, but it’s still much fairer than to pick on a few unfortunate unlucky individuals who are taking the brunt of the global problem. Similar laws are already in force in some countries abroad, but persistent offenders are finding ways to download anonymously in a constant fight against the authorities.

My Help and Advice to People Receiving These Letters or County Court Documents

IMPORTANT UPDATE MAY 2009: See also http://www.beingscammed.com for help!

If you are in doubt goto Citizens Advice or a solicitor, if you aren’t financially well off, you can claim legal aid.

I have advised my friend to totally ignore the demand for £600 and he cannot possibly pay it anyway as he is claiming Income Support (UK Benefits). The document he received is NOT a legal document in any way what-so-ever and therefore no lawful action is needed to be taken at this time in any way what-so-ever.

Is this document a horrible scam as if so obviously I don’t need to worry? Well I’m rather unsure as the law firm in question isn’t even Davenport Lyons (or Davenports) as detailed on a BBC news article where they are apparently acting on behalf of Topware Interactive for this purpose. Also the document isn’t signed by a person, only by the name of the law firm. It would make a perfect scam for someone to read an article on-line about people being taken to court for illegal file sharing / downloading and then to get various broadband user’s details to send them a document like this, threatening to sue unless they receive £600. Some people will simply panic and will pay the £600 without question as the risk of court scares them even if it is only a civil matter. I will do some more research on will update with comments.

If my friend did receive a genuine County Court document, I would advise him to firstly fill out the defence section of the form. Incidentally, genuine County Court documents have an official stamp, I would phone the alleged County Court in question to ensure it really is the real deal. Secondly he should try to attend the county court if possible, although it’s a civil court and it’s not a criminal matter, if you don’t attend you have a much bigger chance of losing the case as it’s then very one sided. It would also be helpful if you had some legal advice from a solicitor or via Citizens Advice who are always there to help. If you cannot afford to travel to the county court in question because you are on state benefits, I certainly suggest you speak to your local Citizens Advice immediately for help and spend more time getting a good defence in your absence.

Out of at least 100 people already taken to court by Davenport Lyons, only 4 of these people lost the case and they didn’t attend or put up any defence. Each of these extremely unlucky individuals were ordered to pay £750 in damages plus court fees although this is an unsecured debt. It’s not a criminal matter if you don’t pay county court damages, but action including bailiffs, attachment of earnings or even at worst bankruptcy proceedings could be taken against you. If you are unlucky enough to be in this situation, please speak to Citizens Advice urgently for help as even in the absolute worst case scenario, the court can only legally take off you in agreed instalments what you can comfortably afford, even if this is only say £5 a week on state benefits. Please click here to read the full BBC News article titled, “Crackdown on web game sharing”. It’s still very difficult for them to prove liability as long as you put up a defence.

In my friends defence, he needs to explain that he doesn’t play Pinball games on his PC and that he has investigated to find the game in question freely downloadable. He should also point out that it’s perfectly legal to download shareware, demos or games you already own even over file sharing networks. For this case to stick they have to prove that my friend actually cracked the software to unlock the paid levels. Also they will have to prove that he did indeed download the game himself and it wasn’t done by an unauthorised person who had hacked into his secure wireless network at the time. Incidentally, at the time BT only recommended WEP encryption for wireless networking and this was defaulted on his BT Home Hub at the time. It’s not his fault this protection was broken as since then WEP security has been upgraded due to hackers easily breaking in and bypassing it.

So if only 4 people out of 100 or more county court cases are won, how can the gaming company gain from prosecuting people as they are losing far more in failed court costs?

Well by being one of the only games companies in Britain to attempt to prosecute people for copyright infringement, they are making a significant impact on reducing piracy, especially for this particular title. Would you download Dream Pinball 3D using peer to peer file sharing after reading read article or other similar articles? Also they are making a point and this could be the start of a trend for more companies to follow suit.

Updates and Comments

I will keep comments below the document updated with what happens regarding my friend after he ignores the original document in question that demands £600. I’d be interested to hear any views on the subject and I’d love to hear from other people who are also experiencing the same problem. Please register if you haven’t done so and comment below.

Disclaimer

I am not a legal solicitor and am not trained in law in any way what-so-ever, this document is therefore only my personal opinion on a matter and PJCNET can not be held responsible for any mistakes made or from any adverse effects after taking my advice. If you need professional advice on this matter, please contact Citizens Advice or a good legal solicitor. This document is completely without prejudice to Zuxxez Entertainment, Topware Entertainment, Davenport Lyons or any other companies mentioned in this document. If any of these organisations would like to respond to this article, I would be delighted to publish it.

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