Plusnet will give your personal details to ACS Law with not informing you!!

[#1]

Interesting disclaimer by Mclean Reid about GCB on their website

[#2]

Quote from: davethir

@Bob Thanks for the update, I look forward to the response from ACS Law, I hope Plusnet will publish what is received, as i notice that Plusnet were threatened not to release the details contained in the last report.

It's been over a month now and no update from PN staff. 
Can you please advise us what action you have taken regards to the blatant breach of the court order by ACS Law? Are you taking this back to the Judge? Please let us know.

[#3]

Quote from: rapidplay

Hi, Guess what I had through the post today? Its another threatening letter, not from ACS,but this time GCB Ltd , saying that they have taken over the case and want a settlement on £475 almost a third of what ACS wanted.

Any chance you can forward a copy of this letter Nick? I had seen the ACS:Bore article but wasn't aware (until now) that any of our customers had received a letter!

Quote from: Tidgy

Can you please advise us what action you have taken regards to the blatant breach of the court order by ACS Law? Are you taking this back to the Judge? Please let us know.

The last I knew, our lawyers had sent a fairly aggressively worded letter to ACS:Law about the situation. I'll have to catch up with a few people around the office before I can provide any more info than that...

[#4]

Bob, do you know if anyone from BT/Plusnet will be observing at Mondays court case?  I know your not party to it, but it could well be very informative for all concerned.

[#5]

Hi Bob,
  Can you send me you email address and I will scan and send it to you..
  Cheers,
Nick..

[#6]

Some very interesting developments in this today.
Firstly, it is rumoured that BT had an observer at today's court case, great news if true.
Secondly it is reported that if you phone the number at the top of GCB Ltd claim letters a recorded announcement says you should ignore the letters as GCB Ltd are no longer involved.
Now the court case itself.
It seems it went entirely bad for all those pursuing claims.  Evidence was presented that the solicitors involved breached bar council regulations and that the letters mis-represented the law.  It look like the Mediacat ACS Law et al will be required to pay punitive costs (at least that seems to be what has been asked for), the court also refused permission for Mediacat, ACS Law et al to discontinue the cases, seemingly stating that all the parties involved (not just those issuing claims) would need to joined (which means that there are a lot more pockets that may be forced to pay those punitive costs).
I can't be certain, but I would say, given how the last 3 court cases that I know of on these matters seem to have gone, that this whole scheme has had lid placed on it.  All that's left now, is just how much Mediacat, ACS Law et al should pay to those they victimised and for the various enquiries by the Bar Association and the Data Protection Registrar to work who should be disbarred and who should be fined.
IANAL and my reading could be entirely wrong, but as far as I can tell, that's a fair summary of where we are at today.

[#7]

Some early news reports, expect more, and more details
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1937594/acs-law-hearing-fiasco
http://www.thinq.co.uk/2011/1/17/acs-lawyer-fails-turn-court/
Latest news article http://torrentfreak.com/acslaw-try-to-drop-file-sharing-cases-fail-to-appear-in-court-110117/ and pretty much a confirmation of what I posted above.

[#8]

I wonder what PLUSNET'S take on this is?

[#9]

Open Rights Group posting on the court case http://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/2011/mass-uk-p2p-trial-becomes-an-off-the-scale-legal-quagmire;-... not read it yet...
Now I've read it, here is my favourite bit

Quote

The lawyers for some of the defendants launched a devastating counter-attack against MediaCAT, demanding punitive damages: "off the scale" were apparently the words used. MediaCAT and ACS:Law have behaved so inappropriately in suing these 27 people, that only punishingly high costs would be fair, they argued. Judge Birss QC's ruling on that point has been postponed for a later court hearing.

Enjoy  
Computer Actives report http://www.computeractive.co.uk/ca/news/1937636/judge-throws-discontinuance-motion-acs-law-filing-sh... yet more delicious quotes my favourite is the judge telling ACS:Law, Media Cats barrister that he "didn't have the court's permission to do this."

[#10]

Post deleted 

[#11]

More coverage
http://torrentfreak.com/senior-judge-astonished-by-actions-of-acslaw-in-file-sharing-cases-110118/

Quote from: davethir

I wonder what PLUSNET'S take on this is?

Well it seems that ACS:Law MiediaCat may well have no standing to take out the NPO's at all.
I suspect everyone will want to wait for these 27 cases to be resolved and ruled on, as they will probably have direct effect on the matter, but as soon as that's done, I would hope Plusnet/BT and the other ISP's involved take a look to see if they can drive the final nail into the coffin, I'm sure for a start there are number of issues that could be pursued, it's just a case of whether its worthwhile however, if Plusnet restricts itself to strickly short term commercial thinking, what's worthwhile to them, may not be what's worthwhile in terms of ridding us the consumers and all ISP's in the future of NPO's like this.

[#12]

Quote from: fourfourdevon

Bob, do you know if anyone from BT/Plusnet will be observing at Mondays court case?

Yes, a legal representative was in attendance.

Quote from: fourfourdevon

Firstly, it is rumoured that BT had an observer at today's court case, great news if true.

As above, it *is* true.

Quote from: fourfourdevon

Secondly it is reported that if you phone the number at the top of GCB Ltd claim letters a recorded announcement says you should ignore the letters as GCB Ltd are no longer involved.

Also true.
We're keeping a very close eye on developments and will continue to take a strict line with ACS:Law where applicable.

[#13]

Some more reports
This one is uninteresting http://musically.com/blog/2011/01/18/acslaw-faces-more-courtroom-troubles-over-filesharing-cases/ as is this one http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/364459/judge-refuses-to-drop-acs-law-file-sharing-cases as they both seem to be partial rehashes of what others have said.
More interesting are http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2011/01/18/acs-law-uk-in-more-hot-water-over-illegal-broadband-isp-... and http://www.myce.com/news/acslaw-continues-downward-spiral-with-file-sharing-cases-38885/ which both have their own input into the story.

[#14]

Quote from: Bob

Yes, a legal representative was in attendance. We're keeping a very close eye on developments and will continue to take a strict line with ACS:Law where applicable.

This is great news. I am very pleased to hear that PN / BT are following this story. I look forward to more updates from PN regarding the missing report from ACS Law too.

[#15]

If the hearing on Monday decides that media cat do not have the rights to sue (as is being discussed on Slyck) then will plusnet apply to the court to disallow ACS LAW ETCfrom using the information gained by the Npos. Also if DIGIPROTECT have failed to keep to their part of the NPO by producing the report to plusnet  then why are they still allowed to hold and possibly use this information at any time.
Hopefully this may start to end on Monday