more lawsuits

[myidisbb]

http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/64216

Thousands of charges against users of filesharing programs have been filed with the state prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe -- and guilty parties are now facing their first legal consequences. For several weeks now, the state prosecutor's office has been warning suspects in writing that "preliminary inquiries have been launched against you for a breach of copyright." Anzeige

The letter states that charges will not be filed if the accused party agrees to settle out of court. The preliminary inquiries are discontinued if a certain amount (between 50 and 500 euros depending on the severity of the violation) is paid to the state chancellery. The accused do not have to defend themselves against the accusations. However, if they do not pay, the state prosecutor's office explains that it will "press charges against you without further notice."

For some time, several thousands of charges have been filed with the state prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe for violations of copyright in the eDonkey P2P network. Law firm Schutt-Waetke is behind the charges. In turn, this law firm has contracted Logistep on behalf of the holders of copyright to search through peer-to-peer networks for files protected by copyright. If Logistep finds any, it stores the provider's IP address and the date and time when the file was offered. These data are then transmitted to the law firm.

The "anti-piracy" investigators, as the lawyers see themselves, seem to be focusing on the Earth 2160 game from Zuxxez Entertainment of Karlsruhe. According to Zuxxez, the law firm has filed more than 18,000 charges against users of filesharing programs who are offering that game. Two weeks ago, only 12,000 cases had been filed when heise online first published a report about these events.

The law firm in Karlsruhe that is representing Zuxxez get the personal data of the accused parties from the files at the state prosecutor's office so it can press charges. Zuxxez Executive Director Dirk P. Hassinger told heise online that the purpose of this campaign is to give users of peer-to-peer networks "something to think about." After all, he points out, the fines charged only amount to around 150 euros including damages. The fines are only greater in individual cases when the accused parties are "repeat offenders."

In a written warning provided to heise online, the law firm estimates that the amount in dispute is 25,000 euros and calculates that the fee that the law firm could charge according to commonly applied rates would be 911.80 euros. The law firm explains that it is, however, "willing to meet you in the middle" and only charge 650 euros as a friendly gesture. The letter does not charge that there have been repeat offenses. The lawyer representing the party that received this letter stated that her client is not willing to pay that fee.

my take. i take it this is in germany? i google Karlsruhe and saw "de" links. looks like a legal firm just llking for money. we have those kind of laywers here that send papers to business saying they are breaking the disable act on bs things. and for $10,000 they would settle out of court.

just because someone's ip address is connectd to earth 2160 name doesnt mean it was the actually file, nor if they actually gotten it all nor if they click on mistakely. just sounds like bs neck deep. (to me sharing a file means you have the whole dang thing on your side) not one tiny little piece out of 250 parts or more. a freaken NFO then could get you into trouble. what these lawyers are doing would be illegal in some states in the usa. i hope you guys in europe finally take care of these guys.

this is such easy money the company that collects the ip addresses and lawyers could actually be the ones that started the uploading. to easy to abuse this