O2 speaks out against file-sharing accusations

O2 is the latest company to criticise the practice of sending out threatening legal letters to alleged illegal downloaders.

The latest spark in this row centres on firm ACS:Law, which specialises in chasing on behalf of intellectual property rights holders, in this case an anti-piracy company called DigiProtect.

Letters have been sent out to customers of various ISPs on DigitProtect’s behalf, containing allegations of downloading copyrighted material, and an option to settle out-of-court for £500.

O2 has complained about the mail received by its customers, and has labelled the correspondence as “bullying”.

For its part, ACS: Law denies any wrongdoing. In a BBC report, a representative of the law firm, Andrew Crossley, states: “Neither we nor our clients threaten or bully anyone.”

“We send out letters of claim to account holders of Internet connections where those Internet connections have been identified as being utilised for illegal file-sharing of our clients’ copyrighted works.”

The trouble is, the methods which ACS: Law employs to identify these file-sharers have had doubt cast on them.

For example, champions of the consumer, Which?, has reportedly received hundreds of complaints from people who say they have been wrongly accused of illegally downloading something they’ve never even heard of.

Of course, in these cases, it’s not easy to disprove the allegations.

Even UK politicians have apparently referred to the scheme as a scam (and they should know one when they see one, cough, expenses).