Yet despite the wealth of information available to anyone with a web browser and a rudimentary grasp of Google, people continue to give ACS:Law money. In the first 11 months of their scheme they collected an amazing £1,000,000 from these letters. How many cases went to court? Zero.

One day people will see this cash cow for what it is and stop feeding it. Hopefully that will be before we see our first flying pig.

Perhaps I didn't express it clearly. It is much easier to be a better musician if you can do it full time. Some will still succeed and be heard by a wider audience. But some will not, and that saddens me because music is **** amazing, and people should be able to dedicate themselves to it. Your real musician is irrelevant to me if I can't hear his music!

As an example, one of my colleagues is signed to a prominent uk electronic label, Rephlex. In the early 90's, he could have made enough money to spend more time making music and improving his studio. Now he cannot, and that is a shame.

a real musician will play whether they get paid or not, it's the music that's important

Well, that's just great for you, isn't it? The musician can keep working his bollocks off and you can get the music you like for free. Why should s/he have to work unrewarded? Don't you think there'd be more time to make better and more interesting music if the musician didn't have to, for instance, spend time fixing bikes and painting houses because of sales lost to piracy?

Can just imagine the reaction around here if it was suggested that sweaty IT merchants shouldn't get paid for what they do – after all, people still produce open source software without getting paid, don't they? So why should anyone get paid for it? "It's the software that counts".

As an example, one of my colleagues is signed to a prominent uk electronic label, Rephlex. In the early 90's, he could have made enough money to spend more time making music and improving his studio. Now he cannot, and that is a shame.

And the problem is that there are probably 1,000s of people just like you downloading for free for a bit of free publicity. 😉

konabunny – Member

a real musician will play whether they get paid or not, it's the music that's important

Well, that's just great for you, isn't it? The musician can keep working his bollocks off and you can get the music you like for free. Why should s/he have to work unrewarded? Don't you think there'd be more time to make better and more interesting music if the musician didn't have to, for instance, spend time fixing bikes and painting houses because of sales lost to piracy?

I think you know what was meant. As I understand it money is not the only reward for an artist. As I said before it's the astist's choice whether the music is released for free or not.

Can just imagine the reaction around here if it was suggested that sweaty IT merchants shouldn't get paid for what they do – after all, people still produce open source software without getting paid, don't they? So why should anyone get paid for it? "It's the software that counts".

Maybe it should be free judging by some of the crap that's written and charged for! 😉

Never downloaded anything other than live dj mixes Simon, which aren't commercially available. The fact that I've spent about £20k on recorded music helps keep my conscience clear 😉

I haven't read this thread in detail, just a very quick scan and I might have missed key points, but

(a) it sounds like the guy is blackmailing you? look up the law on blackmail and see if you can counterclaim?

(b) could he have broken the law in obtaining this data? Data Protection Act for example?

(c) you always, always have defences available to you, and remember the criminal burden of proof is beyond reasonable doubt

(d) call those numbers I gave you above asap and stop wasting your time on this board. I didn't post them for my health!

(e) don't give this guy any money until you've taken proper advice.

Its a scam – as above on one has been prosecuted in the UK for downloading. Just ignore them.

Well he if hadn't posted on here he might not have found it was a scam. A simple google search once again would have fixed it but we let him off because he was probably shitting bricks.

Can I ask who your isp is, so that if it's mine as well, I can cite their behaviour as a reason to change isp.

Another vote for it being a scam here – these people send out letters hoping the recipient will have enough other worrying material that might not cast them in a good light to not want anybody looking into it. The rights/wrongs aside it costs them very little money to send out some letters, if even one in 100 people pays its a good business.

Throw it in the bin.

Contractor that sat next to me at work for a while got one of these letters demanding £500 paid up instantly and sat there trying to think up ways to not let his finance find out. Most entertaining… if a little scary to think what was on his home PC.

Can I ask who your isp is, so that if it's mine as well, I can cite their behaviour as a reason to change isp.

Uhuh! Yeah like he's going to do that.

Well it was my partner who got the mail so she was worrying about having to pay a large sum of money. As it was a Saturday the solicitors was closed and the CAB wouldnt be open. Thought i'd ask here as I know there is a wide range of people on here who may have more knowledge on the subject than me. The advice has been great and we will call the number first thing tomorrow and meet he CAB for their advice.

Drac, unless I am missing something obvious, why wouldn't op tell us who his isp is?

It's not like you can do anything with it, but perhaps if ISP's freely complying with the likes of ACS realise that they are losing business, then they might just do something. It's not as it it's confidential?

So what was the problem with the request?

Well given in here he has admitted he's downloaded files in the past and then if he gives ISP away how hard do think it would be to add that with his current ip together.

Just received the same letter, wanting £295.

Date and time of download, even what client I was using.

Anyone else received one?

I take it I just ignore?

Will you tell us who your ISP is, I34key? Drac seems a bit paranoid that the men in black are watching this forum waiting for an admission of guilt.

Sky

Sorry Drac, you lost me. Kevster telling us that he's BT, or Orange, isn't suddenly going to "blow the gaff" when he's already received a letter and that it's clear his isp has shared his d/l info.

Or is "Kevster" on a forum, saying say he is using BT for his broadband suddenly going to immediately entrap him?

You clearly don't want to know which isp's are giving out your private data, but I do.

It is Sky. I would send a letter of denial stating you are not entering into any further correspondence. From what I gather its a scam and no one has been taken to court. Plenty of stuff online and worth clicking on the links provided.