ACS Law hearing is as much a fiasco as all the others

THE WAR ON INNOCENTS that is ACS Law's prosecution of individuals alleged to have carried out illegal downloads hit a bump in the road today.

Both the firm, which is representing Turkish media company Media CAT, and the defendants agreed to drop their case in question. This case, like all the others, of which there are a further 26 to go, is about the alleged downloading of licensed or copyrighted materials without approval. 'Piracy' of movies and games, to use the plaintiffs' jargon.

Dinah Greek, news editor of The INQUIRER's sister publication Computeractive tweeted from the courtroom, "One case dropped wi both parties consent. New hearing for remaining 26 cases for 24 Jan . Judge Birss conclusion damning."

But in a nice lawyerly way ACS Law said it could reissue the claim in the future. In response Judge Birss is reported by Greek to have said that the reissue threat was "unprecedented" in his career. But then he's probably never seen law conducted like ACS Law conducts it, either.

A year ago the firm was involved in the willy nilly mailing of letters to random people demanding money for compensation for alleged illegal acts. It didn't have much luck then and ACS Law and Media CAT aren't having much luck now.

A case before Christmas, where the two firms were chasing down an individual for letting others allegedly download illegally via a WiFi router, was thrown out. And by the same judge who oversaw today's hearing. µ