Friday, Nov 27, 2009    Text size: 

According to V3.co.uk, as many as 13,000 customers of communications giant BT may soon receive a letter from ACS:Law Solicitors demanding payments of hundreds of dollars in compensation for their online filesharing.

Customers of other ISPs are not immune from the crackdown, as the law firm, which expects to begin processing the new cases as early as January, is also targeting thousands of other individuals.

The report cites ACS:Law attorney Andrew Crossley as saying the targeted customers at BT resulted from data provided by DigiProtect — a German enterprise that provides copyright enforcement services to a number of adult entertainment industry clients — which "identified 25,000 IP addresses linked to illegal downloading."

Crossley said that many IPs were linked to one user, and that of the 25,000 identified IPs, only about half represented individual users who will receive letters.

BT was legally obligated to reveal the names and addresses of the customers using the IP addresses.

"Our letters of claim have resulted in a significant number of payments from peer-to-peer copyright infringers and has led to the recovery of damages for our music, games and film clients worldwide," the ACS:Law website states. "This is an exciting time for anti-piracy organizations; the movement is clearly gathering momentum with strong victories in the U.S., Germany and Sweden."