Ares Connect

Now that the new anti piracy Hadopi law is being enforced in France, tens of thousands of file sharers can expect to receive letters warning them of their alleged illegal file sharing activities. Under the terms of the law, Internet Service Providers are obliged to hand over the names, addresses, emails, and telephone numbers of customers to copyright holders. If the ISP refuses to do this, each unidentified IP address will cost the ISP 1500 Euros.

Alleged file sharers will receive three warnings before being reported to a judge, where they will face a number of different penalties, including fines and disconnection of Internet services.

Trident Media Guard is the anti piracy firm tasked with tracking down alleged illegal file sharers. They are already infamous for their work in polluting BitTorrent and other large file sharing sites with fake data. Since the scale of the operation looks set to reach well into the millions, the firm could be swamped with work imminently.

However, it seems unlikely that the Hadopi file sharing law will have any serious repercussions on file sharing in France as file sharers using BitTorrent sites can easily file share anonymously if they choose to.

The new French anti-piracy law known as Hadopi went “live” this week and copyright holders have already embarked on the mammoth task of sending out 10,000 plus IP addresses to the relevant Internet service providers. With the number of targeted IP addresses likely to reach into the millions very soon, the sheer scale of the operation is immense.

Under the new Hadopi law, alleged illegal file sharers will be hunted down and identified by their IP addresses. Once they have received three warnings, they face being reported to a judge and hit with a variety of penalties, ranging from fines to disconnection of their Internet service.

If the ISPs refuse or fail to identify any accounts and subsequently provide names, addresses, emails, and phone numbers, they also face a fine of 1500 Euros per unidentified IP address. All French Internet Service Providers have been ordered to comply with the new law and the first alleged offenders look likely to receive their first fines or disconnection notices imminently.

But despite the Entertainment Industry’s efforts, there are plenty of ways for users to file share anonymously and it seems unlikely that the Hadopi law will have any real impact on file sharing in France.

One of the biggest arguments the music industry uses when talking about Internet file sharing activities is that file sharing damages recording artists’ revenues. However, a recent study by Norwegian students from the Norwegian School of Business Management puts a whole different perspective on things. The thesis study appears to prove that despite the music industry’s claims that artist revenue has decreased with the growth of illicit file sharing, in fact artist revenue has actually increased.

The study looked at music industry revenue streams from 1999 to 2009 and the results were quite startling. The students expected to see that with the rise of the digital age of music, revenue would have shown a marked decrease over the last few years. However, this was not the case. Instead, the music industry in Norway grew from 1.4 billion Kroner in 1999 to 1.9 billion Kroner in 2009. Even when inflation was taken into account, this still represented a 4% increase in revenue.

But this wasn’t the big surprise—the real shock came when artist revenue was examined in greater detail. Taking inflation into account, the increase in revenue was 114%. This illustrates just how little the rise in file sharing activity has affected artist revenue. Even though the music industry is constantly claiming that illegal file sharing is having a catastrophic effect on industry profits, this is clearly not the case at all.

Although the record companies are constantly complaining about how industry profits are being eaten alive by alleged illegal file sharing, a recent study by Norwegian students from the Norwegian School of Business Management appears to show that artist revenues have in fact increased dramatically over the last ten years—which is at odds with what the record companies would have us believe!

The students looked at detailed data from different music industry revenue streams between 1999 and 2009. Even when inflation was taken into account, the total revenue from the Norwegian music industry grew from 1.4 billion Norwegian Kroner in 1999 to 1.9 billion in 2009. This equates to a 4% increase for the music industry as a whole.

However, when artist revenue is looked at in more detail, the increase is considerably more marked. The figures show that for the same period, artist revenue grew by a whopping 114%–which means it effectively doubled.

Some of this growth can be attributed to the numbers of artists increasing, but it is still fairly obvious that recording artists are much better off now than they were ten years ago. So despite the claims by the music industry that illegal file sharing activity is stealing revenue away from the recording artists, the actual evidence strongly suggests otherwise.

Following years of bullying and intimidation tactics, anti privacy firm, Logistep has finally reached the end of the road in its home country, Switzerland. The Swiss Federal Court has ruled that the company’s method of harvesting IP addresses to obtain personal information is a breech of privacy laws and has banned Logistep from trading in Switzerland any longer.

The company operates by using IP addresses obtained from people who allegedly download files from Logistep’s clients via P2P file sharing sites on the Internet. Once Logistep has enough information, they send out intimidating letters to the persons involved threatening legal action unless a hefty fine is paid.

The company has already tried the same technique in France, but the French lawyer involved was subjected to a disciplinary tribunal brought against her by her own peers. She was subsequently banned from practicing law for six months and disqualified from professional associations for ten years.

The battle to stop the diabolical practices of Logistep has been a long and painful one, but at least some light is now on the horizon as the decision by the Swiss courts is a final one—and therefore not open to appeal.

A recent decision by the Swiss Federal Court is bad news for the notorious anti piracy firm, Logistep, as the company is now banned from trading in its home country of Switzerland. This ruling follows several years of dubious trading tactics of intimidation whereby the company harvested IP addresses from people using P2P file sharing sites.

Anyone who was considered to be illegally sharing files relating to Logistep’s clients was at risk. Logistep used the IP addresses it harvested to identify personal information and once the company had names and addresses of people involved, threatening letters were sent warning them that they faced a lawsuit unless they agreed to pay a large fine.

Thankfully the legal system has stepped in to put a stop to this bullying practice. The Swiss Federal Court has now ruled that this dubious method is a violation of privacy laws and with the decision closed to appeal, Logistep has nowhere left to turn. Unfortunately, in the wake of the ruling, the company has announced it will move its operations to Germany, so lets hope that the German Courts soon see sense and put a stop to this shameful practice.

Infamous file sharing firm, ACS: Law, are finally been brought to task over their extreme methods of scare-mongering and intimidation over non-existent file sharing cases. The firm and its boss, Andrew Crossley, will shortly be facing a disciplinary tribunal instigated by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority.

Many hundreds of innocent people have fallen foul of ACS: Law over the last few years. Most of these have been the victim of letters demanding cash in return for dropping bogus illegal file sharing claims. Such is the scale of the problem that in July 2010 alone, the Solicitors Regulatory Authority received a staggering 418 cases. Over the last year, the SRA has literally been swamped with people unhappy about their treatment at the hands of ACS: Law and its boss, Andrew Crossley.

Many consumer groups have been campaigning for a long time about the reprehensible behaviour of Mr. Crossley and his team of lawyers. Now that the rogue law firm might finally be made to stop their bullying tactics, consumer groups such as Which? hope that this will be the end of such inappropriate cases, preferably before the already tarnished reputation of the legal profession is damaged any further.

The news that The Solicitors Regulatory Authority is finally taking action against law firm ACS: Law will be seen as welcome news by many consumer groups who have been dealing with an unprecedented number of complaints.

ACS: Law has become infamous in recent times for its tactics of sending out intimidating letters threatening innocent people with expensive illegal file sharing cases unless they pay a financial settlement. In fact, the problem has become so bad that the SRA has received a staggering 418 complaints in July 2010 alone.

The firm, run by Andrew Cross, is responsible for more complaints and bad press than any other firm in the field of IP cases. Unsurprisingly, this will not be the first time Mr. Cross has appeared before a tribunal after complaints about his methods of practicing.

ACS: Law has ruined the lives of hundreds of people with its sharp practice and bullying tactics. Consumer groups, including Which? have been campaigning for a long time about the way ACS: Law operate and they are applauding the decision to finally take action against the firm. Most people agree that whilst sometimes legal action is appropriate, the methods practiced by ACS: Law are totally unacceptable.