Too much hassle
The long-running saga of ACS: Law and its action against suspected illegal file-sharers appears to have come to an end with the announcement from lead solicitor Andrew Crossley that he has ceased his work.
"I have ceased my work...I have been subject to criminal attack. My e-mails have been hacked. I have had death threats and bomb threats," he said in a statement read to the court by his client MediaCAT's barrister Tim Ludbrook, as reported by the Beeb. "It has caused immense hassle to me and my family."
While, of course, we don't endorse death threats or any other kind of illegal activity, we find it bizarre that Crossley would bemoan the ‘hassle' he's experienced. Presumably the thousands of recipients of legal letters from him also considered them a hassle, at the very least.
The statement was read out at the Patent's County Court, where last week it emerged that Crossley was dropping the 27 cases he was actively pursuing, having failed to appear for the scheduled hearing.
ACS: Law was already in a spot of bother over the leak of a bunch of unencrypted emails and a list of suspected file-sharers were accessed and leaked by hackers. The principal complaint against ACS was not so much its pursuit of illegal file-sharers, but its apparent scatter-gun approach to sending out legal letters that encouraged people to pay a fine in order to prevent any further legal action.
Consumer mag Which was among the media to oppose Crossley's actions. "It is good news that ACS is no longer carrying out this work - let's hope the judge in this case decides that an IP address alone is not reliable evidence to prove unlawful filesharing and that an account holder is not liabile for another person's unauthorised actions," said Deborah Prince, head of in-house legal at Which, in response to this news.
