p2pnet - rss feed: Online vigilantes after UK lawyer?
p2pnet.net news:- Torrentfreak over in Holland is running an interesting story saying online vigilantes are after a UK lawyer who’s acting for a games company in a p2p file sharing case.
German games software distributor Zuxxez (say it fast 
is behind the action and, using Britain’s Davenport Lyons, “it’s mimicking a ploy much favoured by entertainment cartel enforcers, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) in particular, even offering victims a ’settlement’ option with threats of huge fines if they don’t agree to the extortion,” said p2pnet last month.
Davenport Lyons describes itself as a, “commercially focused law firm acting for businesses and entrepreneurial clients from a wide range of market sectors including entertainment, media, property, retail and banking,” with “38 partners, 12 Associates and 50 other fee-earners,” boasts it’s, “grown to have one of the largest dedicated media, entertainment and leisure practices in London.”
Brian Miller (upper right) is as a partner focusing on intellectual property and information technology.
Says Torrentfreak:
When he took on 500 alleged Pinball pirates, it seems that he may have got more than he bargained for.
According to an anonymous source, a vigilante group has been formed, possibly by angry file-sharers, who are engaged in a campaign to reveal intimate details of Mr and Mrs Miller’s life, on the internet. Apparently he has received threats to reveal his wife’s private details including her place of work and contact numbers, their home addresses and private information regarding their parents. And it seems they aren’t going to stop there. In addition there are threats to reveal Mr Miller’s financial dealings at past employers and to have his directorships put under scrutiny. The threats were made by the previously unknown ‘Davenport Cats’ action group.
Perhaps as part of the first attack, a user with the name ‘davenport cats’ made a single post on Slyck Forums.
According to Torrentfreak, The Slyck post said:
SCRATCHMABACK LIMITED
Just have a look at the directors !!
You can’t, however, because ScratchMaBack.com is offline. “ScratchMaBack trade professional services online,” says the Google index link. “Barter services and goods. Business Directory. Advertise for free. Swap services and goods. Find a partner in your area.” The cache page doesn’t reveal anything interesting, and the Slick post has been deleted.
Meanwhile, “It’s understood that the threats are being taken seriously and that legal action is likely but of course, thats no surprise in this pinball saga,” says Torrentfreak.
“Miller, was until recently Head of Legal Affairs for Virgin Interactive (previously NTL:Telewest). On the 26th March, Telewest issued a bill to Davenport Lyons totalling £18,473 for ‘compensation for costs incurred in providing information to Topware Interactive’ - in simple terms, that’s what the ISPs charge the lawyers to hand over their customer’s personal information so that they can be threatened.
“People who have received a threatening letter but have refused to pay up have as yet, heard nothing from Davenport Lyons.”
As Torrentfreak suggests, stay tuned.
Also See:
Torrentfreak - Vigilante Group Threatens P2P Lawsuit Lawyer, May 2, 2007
mimicking a ploy - Zombies are no excuse …., April 17, 2007
If your Net access is blocked by governBryan Adams slams Net radio hikement restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at thIs the endSurvey: How Did Copyright Infringement Become Equated with Robbery? (of the Net) nigh?zze University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
May 3rd, 2007 at 6:30 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Ralsky
He gained much of his notoriety following a December 2002 interview with The Detroit News. The article was soon posted to Slashdot and the address of his newly built home was posted to Slashdot not long after that. Hundreds of Slashdot readers then searched the Internet for advertising mailing lists and free catalogs and signed him up for them. As a result, he was inundated with junk mail. In a Detroit Free Press article on December 6, 2002, he is quoted as saying “They’ve signed me up for every advertising campaign and mailing list there is … These people are out of their minds. They’re harassing me”.
See also:
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/200304/msg00184.html
May 4th, 2007 at 4:46 am
Virgin Interactive has no connection with Virgin Media (NTL/Telewest/Virgin Moble/Flex tech).
Virgin Media share holders are NTL/Telewest/Virgin Group.
Virgin Media other business are Virgin Television (Flex tech) which ownes veriours TV channels and also co-ownes UKTV (with BBC).
I can not find any recored that shows Virgin Media has any shares in Virgin Interactive or Virgin Interactive has shares in Virgin Media.
Sorry to say this but Virgin Media is one of good guy’s. With true unlimited bandwidth as an ISP. Yes Virgin Media has fair usage t&c but nothing about usage just rules which say if try to hack other computers etc then they can disconnect you.