Only weeks after the consumer magazine Which? exposed the case of a Scottish couple wrongly accused by London law firm Davenport Lyons of downloading and making available a video game on a file sharing network, an online forum has unearthed what looks to be a deliberate plot by a company called Digiprotect to upload gay pornography films to file sharing networks, wait for them to be downloaded then instruct solicitors to send letters demanding money from downloaders or face court action.

Steve Lawson, editor for Hellmail the postal industry news site said:

"Clearly this isn't about protecting the rights of copyright holders at all but about exploiting the copyright act to make money. Innocent people are getting caught up in this as Which? proved recently. According to a leaked document, a contract between Evil Angel (an American gay porn film company) and Digiprotect was made so that Digiprotect secured the rights to make around 50 gay pornogrpahy films available via P2P file sharing networks with the sole purpose of entrapping people."

"Frankly this entire business look seedy and more and more like an extorion racket. It is seriously undermining the legal profession in the UK. The general consensus by UK internet providers was that they would prefer to send warning letters to anyone thought to be infringing copyright and the tactics being used by Davenport Lyons have already been thrown out by some European countries. Even allowing for a downturn in the economy, if the legal profession sink to this kind of thing, then it will make a mockery of the entire industry."

"We have a copy of the leaked document, which, if it proves to be genuine, and all the indications are that it is genuine, this issue needs to be brought to the attention of the government immediately." he said.

A member of Slyck forums, presently discussing the entire case said he had received a letter from Davenport Lyons accusing him of downloading a gay porn film, the original rights of which were held by Harmony Productions, said to be a subsiduary of Evil Angel. Bizarely, a Google search revealed that the address for Harmony Productions matched that of Davenport Lyons London address, giving rise to accusations by some, that Davenport Lyons are simply using copyright law to demand sums of money (typically £500 or more) and exploit the entire file sharing issue.

Simon Davies of Privacy International said: "This is appalling, it breaches a number of fundamental human rights. They risk bringing the law into disrepute - just because lawyers can do something it doesn't mean that they should,"

One file sharer pointed out that by using gay porn, it was giving Davenport Lyons a lever to get accused file sharers to pay up rather than have to face heterosexual partners that might otherwise not have known that their partner had such interests and break up marriages and lives.

"I find this deeply shocking" said Steve Lawson. "As things stand, anyone with an internet connection could recieve one of these letters from Davenport Lyons and their evidence seems to be based wholly on an IP address. An IP address is not proof that any individual actually downloaded or shared a file since some P2P networks spoof IP addresses and its too easy to hack into private networks.

"The fact that gay porn in particular is being singled out as a way to entrap people is disgraceful and I'm sure the gay community would find that deeply offensive, but to purposely upload these films with the sole intention of using it to lever money from people is beyond offensive.

"From what we've seen to date, this law firm seem to be relying on these letters to reap cheques of £500 or more from each one they write to. So far no defended case has ever reached the UK courts, only default judgements. This seedy approach to software piracy has to stop. Why Gay? Why not child pornography?" he said.

Ref: http://regmedia.co.uk/2008/11/19/davenport_letter.jpg
Ref: http://www.p2p-blog.com/item-823.html

© Hellmail.co.uk (19 November 2008)

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