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Sue-the-fans good business for lawyers and web spies
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 6 October 2010
According to The Guardian, when file-sharers settle with a legal company like ACS:Law after being accused of copyright infringement, as little as 20% will actually go to the rights holder.
ACS:Law is the shambolic London-based legal outfit that has been leading the way of late in the world of sue-the-fans file-sharing litigation, albeit working more for porn magnates than music companies. The company’s work in this area has been under the spotlight for some time, but more so than ever since it accidentally published private information about thousands of accused file-sharers, and a load of its own private emails, after its server was attacked by pro-filesharing groups last month.
The Guardian has been investigating what happens to the £300 that many file-sharers pay when sent a letter by ACS in order to avoid being taken to court. The paper says the law firm will keep up to £240, of which half will go to the techie firm that spotted the file-sharer in the first place and to the ISP that revealed the identity of the accused, leaving £120 for the legal dudes. The content owner gets £60-£90.
Some have accused ACS of basically turning sue-the-fans litigation into a business. The lawsuits are not designed to provide a deterrent that will discourage others from file-sharing (as the Recording Industry Association Of American hoped they would), but are in themselves a revenue stream, though one that benefits tedious lawyers rather more than creative companies (pornographic or otherwise).
Although ACS:Law does not represent any big music clients, some of the letters sent out by the legal firm demanding three hundred quid related to the Cascada song ‘Evacuate The Dancefloor’, owned by German label Zooland Records. And, of course, parallels are being made between the activities of ACS and those of Gallant Macmillan, which is representing Ministry Of Sound on its file-sharing litigation.
