[Sheflug] Swiss IP Harvesters Logistep and Dark Deeds in UK

[Richard Ibbotson <richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello there

You can make what you like of this.  I'm circulating it here due to 
the questionable nature of the way that UK law is either being misused 
or not used or misunderstood .......

http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/content/swiss-ip-harvesters-logistep-it-
again-uk

"  Using the entertainment industries umbrella excuse of protecting 
their copyrighted products Logistep have enabled UK law firm ACS Law to 
obtain the personal details of 5000 people who the Swiss company say 
they have proof that the products in question were uploaded from 
United Kingdom’s IP addresses. None of their methods have been 
scrutinized by UK authorities, indeed the company was recently told it 
could no longer operate in Germany because they refused to allow a 
German criminal investigation to ascertain the legality of their 
methods.
... Swiss IP harvesting firm Logistep have today had their 
questionable, and as yet unscrutinsed, methods of gathering UK 
internet users IP Addresses, accepted by the courts as enough reason 
to issue a court order allowing ACS Law to obtain the personal details 
of customers from their Internet Service Providers. The Swiss firm’s 
methods have been discredited in Germany, Italy and France so far. 
There has not been a hearing in the UK as the people being accused of 
sharing the files have yet to be given the chance to defend themselves 
in court. Although, suspiciously, the only people who have been taken 
to trial are people who have not responded to a court summons or any 
previous demands for up to £950 compensation and thus default 
judgements have been issued against them. Whilst the Pirate Party UK 
does not encourage or condone “illegal file-sharing” we do feel that 
methods used to gather evidence should be thoroughly scrutinized by UK 
authorities before being accepted as reason to force ISP's to divulge 
customer information. Furthermore, the head of the European Union's 
group of data privacy regulators has said IP addresses should 
generally be regarded as personal information, which needs 
clarification with regards to the law in the UK.  "


--
Richard

_______________________________________________
Sheffield Linux User's Group
http://sheflug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/sheflug_sheflug.org.uk
FAQ at: http://www.sheflug.org.uk/mailfaq.html

GNU - The Choice of a Complete Generation