Official Ares Free Download

 Blackmail tactics first popularised by Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music’s RIAA are creating a cottage industry for unscrupulous lawyers and the people who hire them.

The RIAA is a past master at firing off subpoenas and following them up with  threatening ‘pay up or else’ letters.

Yesterday, “The Video Protection Alliance (VPA) bills itself as a ‘fast, secure and convenient way to settle your copyright violations online’,” said p2pnet, going on:

“It generously helps ‘you, the fan, identify copyright violations, pay a nominal settlement fee, and clear your record”’.

“So how does it achieve this? By a business method tried and trusted by Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music’s RIAA. And the MAFIA.

“Extortion.”

Britain’s ACS:Law is pretty good at that too  and now the season of goodwill is nigh, “Around 15,000 suspected pirates may soon get legal letters accusing them of illegally sharing movies and games,” says the BBC.  “ACS:Law plan to send notes to the accused in the New Year offering a chance to settle out of court for ’several hundreds of pounds’.”

The pic on the right is a clip from p2pnet’s re-post of  a GooTube video. But when click the arrow to continue, all you get is, ” The video has been removed by the user.”

Says the BBC, “The firm’s Andrew Crossley (upper right) told the BBC it was acting to “eradicate” sharing of its client’s products,” stating:

“We give them opportunity to enter into compromise right at the start to avoid having to deal with it [in court].”

If it went to court and the lawyers were successful, he said, damages “would run into several thousands of pounds”.

The story continues »»»

But consumer group Which? said that it had heard from around 150 consumers who had been “wrongly accused” in similar cases.

“A lot are accused of downloading pornography,” Jaclyn Clarabut of Which? told BBC News. “People find it distressing or embarrassing and pay up.”

Others, she said, “don’t want the threat of court action” hanging over them or cannot afford to pay for a lawyer and settle the claim for the lower figure.

Meanwhile, ACS: Law is “currently under investigation” by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), says the BBC, quoting Crossley as complaining his firm had been targeted by an “internet campaign” and was “cooperating with the inquiries”.

“It doesn’t of itself indicate that I have done anything wrong,” he says in the story.

“I have no qualms or concerns about what I am doing.”

Related Articles

 Enjoyed this? Subscribe to the feed.