Following last month’s failed attempt by ACS:Law to have default judgments handed down to 8 individuals accused of illegal file-sharing, the company have been back in court again. In a case where they couldn’t even get the defendant’s name right, ACS hoped for a ruling in their favor but were again denied by the judge. Instead, all of ACS:Law’s outstanding cases have been rounded up for a hearing next month. Things are about to get interesting.
Last month, the Patents County Court in the UK witnessed a messy attempt by law firm ACS:Law to get default judgments against 8 internet connection owners who the company claimed infringed or allowed others to infringe copyrights.
Representing Media C.A.T, a kind of ‘front company’ for movie companies involved in so-called “pay up or else” or “speculative invoicing” schemes, ACS:Law managed to squeeze an impressive number of errors into the proceedings and the result was that in all 8 cases, default judgments were denied.
Now it appears that ACS:Law have been back to court again, this time with a case brought against an alleged file-sharer called Mr Billington.
“Following our phone call today regarding the claim form I have received from yourselves [on behalf of] ACS:Law, I apologise for the belated reply as on the claim form there is no mention of timescale, or a acknowledge service form for me to respond to, which I believe should have been included,” Mr Billington wrote in a letter to the clerk of the court.
Judge Birss QC, who also handled last month’s cases, noted that in Mr Billington’s case the claim appeared to have been issued without including a response pack, i.e the necessary paperwork which enables the defendant to put his side of the story.
“My last correspondence on 1st November to ACS Law was advising them that I have not infringed any copyright, I refuted the claim in that, they have an IP address, which they claim relates to my computer,” continued Mr Billington.
“Firstly I have 5 computers so I do not know which one they refer to. Also I am not the sole user of the computers. I asked them for further evidence of this alleged infringement. I then receive the said claim form.”
The defendant then went on to explain that since he had been receiving “threatening letters from ACS Law demanding monies” he believed he had been the victim of “some sort of scam”.
However, rather than deal with the case, the Judge did something interesting.
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Judge Orders Hearing To Deal With All ACS:Law File-Sharing Cases
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