Court to UK copyright troll ACS:Law: you can't drop your cases

ACS:Law, the UK law firm that sent thousands of legal threats to alleged illegal downloaders on behalf of pornographers, has been told that it can't simply drop its suits against its victims and avoid having its methods scrutinized by the courts. The judge has clearly got ACS's number, characterising its strategy thus: "Why take cases to court and test the assertions when one can just write more letters and collect payments from a portion of the recipients?"

Mr Crossley, who was not present in court, had said that he fully intended to prosecute the cases before pulling out.
The judgment, however, cast doubt on that - pointing out that one of the reasons given for discontinuing the cases was that crucial documents were in storage.
"If true, it is extraordinary," said the ruling. "A party who keeps key documents which are cited in the particulars of claim in storage is not a party anxious to progress their claim in court."
ACS:Law announced that it was shutting down last week, and MediaCAT has also been wound up.
Mr Crossley is now the subject of an investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

ACS:Law told file-sharing case must continue by court (Thanks, Ppopkin, via Submitterator!)

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satn

HA-HA!
S&Z’sDaddy

I used to be in charge of a welfare facility in the North of Scotland which gave free internet access to young people in the area (but which is going to be lost due to the government cuts) when I received a letter from ACS Law. Its tone was astonishingly accusatory and belligerent. It was as if I had been seen copulating with a goat at midday in a local play-park, without the good manners to buy it dinner first!

In short one of the young people had managed to get round our firewall and download “Big-Titted Nurses” from some rapidshare site, when he actually thought he was downloading some code to do with cheating on Call of Duty. (you decide which is the more heinous crime).

Long story short we ignored the letter after researching advice from Which? and are gratified to see Mr Crossley getting taken roughly from behind by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Hurrah!
Anonymous

@S&Z: “when he actually thought he was downloading some code to do with cheating on Call of Duty”

Sure he did. I like your optimism though :)
Anonymous

All persons who gave “settlement money” to ACS should receive notification that their court cases were never originally intended to go to court. As such, those who settled should be given a chance for recourse: a full return of the monies in question plus a punitive fee. That should stop ACS or any other entity from attempting any other manner of “shake-down” in the future.
sworm

Pulling out never works.
Anonymous

A case of prosecoitus interruptus?
Andrew W

On an unrelated note, there’s a huge Matthew Perry banner that’s autoexpanding, covering content down to nearly the follow links on the site. And in addition to being huge in dimensions, it’s obnoxiously huge in file size as well. You may wish to upbraid your ad network about that one.
jackm

Now if only the RIAA, MPAA, and NGA would get investigated for the same behaviour…