Thousands of letters have been distributed by ACS: Law on the behalf of anti-piracy firms looking to "settle" with accused copyright violators -- but the group behind the letters must now answer to a legal investigation regarding its efforts.
ACS: Law has generated a large amount of criticism from file sharers and legal experts, especially as the group mistakenly targets the wrong people. These waves of sometimes indiscriminate letters sent to accused file sharers have made groups nervous, with U.S. copyright groups also receiving bad publicity from previous efforts.
The group, which was told by British ISP O2 to leave its subscribers alone, has also drawn the attention of the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA). The UK’s SRA is responsible for looking after the actions of attorneys and law firms, but has been slow to respond to an overwhelming number of complaints on ACS: Law.
Last September, ACS: Law complaints totaled 16 percent of the group's total complaints for the entire month. Through early July 2010, according to the SRA, ACS: Law has been the focus of 418 official public complaints.
These extortion collection groups are recruited by copyright holders to track down accused file sharers -- and both sides are in it to try and squeeze money out of alleged pirates. The more settlement letters they can send out to file sharers, the more money they will be able to generate from the letters.
If this group wants to send out thousands of letters at a time, they should have to verify the reasoning and information leading to each letter. It shouldn't be up to the ISPs to turn over subscriber information only to find ACS: Law tried to create a file sharing dragnet that accuses innocent people and tries to extort them out of their money.
Let's hope that the SRA makes an example out of this unscrupulous law group.
