Law firm suing grandmas for downloading porn over BitTorrent

[Liberal_in_LA]

Lawsuit says grandma illegally downloaded porn



Jane is in her 70s, a retired widow who spends her days doing volunteer work in the East Bay and fussing over her grandchildren. She also downloads porn illegally over BitTorrent.

That, at least, is the claim in an April lawsuit against her and dozens of other Jane and John Does by a Chicago law firm that's been busily filing similar cases around the country.

It's also made a habit of strongly suggesting that these "digital pirates" settle out of court for several thousand dollars. Letters to defendants helpfully remind them the amount is below what they'd probably pay in attorney's fees and that settling would avoid publicly linking their names to pornography.

This particular Jane (who didn't want her real name used for that very reason) said she's never downloaded porn and doesn't know what a BitTorrent is. She can't afford an attorney to make her case, but she's not about to settle either.

"It smacks of extortion," she said.

Some legal observers agree.

Steele Hansmeier PLLC filed the case against "Does 1-46" in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on behalf of Hard Drive Productions. The growing law firm has now lodged complaints on behalf of adult companies against about 10,000 defendants, partner John Steele said.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/14/BUG51KA26R.DTL#ixzz1SC8EwEBT

[shraby]

1. Smacks of a big-time scam to me.

[Ian David]

2. You don't need to do illegal things to download porn for free.

That's like getting arrested for stealing air.

[ladjf]

11. No need to download. Just view free streaming videos. nt

[ejpoeta]

3. How can they prove this woman downloaded anything anyway. Couldn't someone have hijacked

her computer? or Maybe they are full of crap since they want these folks to settle.

[ecstatic]

4. Or maybe she has an unsecured wireless router? nt

[PoliticAverse]

6. Is there really such a thing as a 'secured wireless router'? n/t

[EOTE]

12. WPA2 is fairly secure. NT

[Incitatus]

13. That depends on the skills of the person who wants access.

The security software that comes with the router is usually enough. Of course, even US defense systems get hacked. Nothing is 100% secure.

[itsrobert]

7. Most likely

I know a few people who are technology challenge and they don't bother with securing their router. I try to help. In a big apartment building, many could be leeching off them.

[lumberjack_jeff]

10. There's a good argument to be made...

... that having an unsecured router and running a tor server gives you an alibi.

[RandySF]

5. Why would anyone need to use BitTorrent

There are dozens of tube sites.

[hobbit709]

8. Is this law firm a subsidiary of Righthaven?

It sure smells of their tactics.

[Bosonic]

9. It's not a very successful business model

ACS Law "took advantage" of accused file-sharers

ACS Law has been charged with "taking unfair advantage" of the alleged file-sharers targeted in its letter-writing campaign.

The now defunct law firm, which became infamous for speculatively invoicing people accused of sharing copyrighted material online, faces seven charges at a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal hearing.

The independent tribunal says the firm's sole solicitor, Andrew Crossley, has a case to answer in respect of using "his position as a solicitor to take or attempt to take unfair advantage of other persons being recipients of letters of claim, either for his own benefit or for the benefit of his clients".

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/368635/acs-law-took-advantage-of-accused-file-sharers

[Aerows]

14. My mother is in her 70's

And while she has a computer, I can promise you, she doesn't know "what a BitTorrent" is, either. It's highly likely she has no idea "what a twitter" is, either. She barely knows about Facebook.

This is like the dead woman they were trying to sue for sharing songs, and the man that had been in the hospital having surgery when he supposedly downloaded/shared the songs, and he lived alone.

It's extortion.