Atari fires UK attack lawyers Davenport Lyons
p2pnet news view Games | Freedom:- Atari has fired UK corporate attack lawyers Davenport Lyons.
It’s also dropped its lawsuit against Ken and Gill Murdoch, a Scottish couple wrongly accused by the law firm and online scalp-hunter Logistep of stealing Atari’s Race 07.
The Register says Atari’s legal department states:
“In relation to file sharing, our position is that we always retain and reserve the right to protect our intellectual property from illegal copying and piracy. Whilst we are no longer working with Davenport Lyons, we continue to work with legal advisers to protect our rights.”
The Murdochs, aged 54 and 66, from Inverness, said they’d never in their lives played a computer game and thought their IP address may have been hijacked, said Metro.co.uk.
Dream Pinball 3D
Swiss copyright protection firm Logistep has been accused of violating Switzerland’s telecommunication law, said a p2pnet story on the Atari/Murdoch farce, going on »»»
And, German games software distributor Zuxxez is using Britain’s Davenport Lyons to mimick a ploy used by entertainment cartel enforcers to offer victims a ’settlement’ option, “with threats of huge fines if they don’t agree to the extortion,” said p2pnet last summer.
“As many as 100 people suspected of illegally sharing computer game files over the internet are to be sued for copyright infringement, it emerged today,” said Times Online.
Davenport Lyons said it would, “launch legal proceedings on behalf of the computer game publisher Topware Interactive after a woman was fined £16,000 for illegally sharing a pinball-themed game over the web,” said the story.
“The woman, who has not been named, was forced to pay £6,000 of damages and £10,000 in costs to Topware after she was found to have uploaded the game Dream Pinball 3D to the internet and [allegedly] distributed it using file-sharing networks.”
In this most recent example of a law firm intimidating innocent people, “Ken and Gill Murdoch were tracked down by games company Atari for allegedly sharing Race 07 over the internet,” says Metro.co.uk, continuing Davenport Lyons, acting for Atari, ordered the couple to pay £500 compensation and £25 costs, “or face the threat of expensive legal proceedings”.
Davenport Lyons filesharing accusations on Atari’s behalf were based on data provided by Logistep, says The Register, continuing »»»
It makes lists of IP addresses seen participating in infringing BitTorrent swarms, which Davenport Lyons uses to obtain names and addresses from ISPs, via court order. On receipt of a data retrieval fee of about £10, ISPs must hand over their customers’ details or be found in contempt.
In October the consumer organisation Which? highlighted flaws in this process, however, and forced Atari to accept it had falsely accused a Scottish couple of infringing its copyright on Race07. The threat against them was quickly dropped.
Michael Coyle, a solicitor at the firm Lawdit, said he wasn’t surprised Davenport Lyons had lost a client. “It’s really horrible PR,” he said. “Their strategy is so far over the top; nuts and sledgehammers come to mind. It was always inevitable it would backfire”.
Davenport Lyons’ anti-filesharing business was last week hit by fresh controversy when it emerged it had begun sending out legal threats on behalf of the owners of the copyright to hardcore gay porn movie Army Fuckers. Critics said innocent people would be likely to pay up to have the case dropped rather than face being branded as a porn downloader in open court.
Lawdit is representing more than 300 people who have been targetted by Davenport Lyons. Only about a dozen are accused of infringing Atari copyright. The vast majority are under threat from another Davenport Lyons anti-piracy client, Topware Interactive, also a videogames publisher.
Davenport Lyons did not respond to requests for comment, adds The Register.
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The Register – Atari dumps Davenport Lyons’ piracy nastygram campaign, November 27, 2008
Metro.co.uk – Innocent file sharers face £500 penalty, October 29, 2008
accused of violating – Logistep law-breaking anti-file-share maneuver, January 26, 2008
p2pnet – Innocent couple cited in ‘pirating’ screw-up, October 30, 2008
p2pnet – Online vigilantes after UK lawyer?, May 3, 3008
Times Online – Hundreds sued for sharing video games, August 17, 2008
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