According to 'The Register', Atari have apparently dropped London-based solicitors Davenport Lyons, which had been representing Atari in a mass offensive on UK P2P file sharers.

Davenport Lyons seemed reliant on lists of IP addresses supplied by Swiss company Logistep, evidence that was at best flimsy, and at worst totally imaccurate, and gave rise to a spate of furious and innocent internet users seeking legal advice after receiving letters from Davenport Lyons saying "pay up or face court action"

Perhaps Atari figured that the costs involved in securing names via ISP's for a case that had never actually been tried in a UK court was becoming a good deal more expensive than they had actually budgeted for. Davenport Lyons was also clocking up additional costs replying, template fashion, to hundreds of queries from outraged internet users who knew nothing of the game they'd been accused of sharing. One presumes that Atari were footing the bill on all of this.

It may have been the internet mutterings that Davenport Lyons had allegedly moved up a gear and begun working with a company that was distributing gay porn films on P2P to trap downloaders and trigger yet more "pay up or face court" letters. Perhaps the association and resultant press coverage wasn't exactly good for Atari's image?

Whatever the reason, Atari has apparently severed links with Davenport Lyons and presumably those accused of downloading or sharing "Test Drive Unlimited" can put their letters where they should have gone in the first place - the bin.

If you're out to stop file-sharing, this isn't the way to do it. Whilst Davenport Lyons may have secured a few cheques for their troubles from a frightened few, many refused to pay or ignored the letters altogether. Its a costly business taking people to court - more so if you're not 100% sure of winning. An IP address is not sound evidence. Its just that - an IP address and there are thousands of unsecured wi-fi networks, many of which are offered free, right across the UK. Neither is there a legal requirement in the UK to even secure a wireless network.

Faced with flat denials and/or further questions from those accused, Davenport Lyons tried to power up the cheque-gathering machine with threats of gaining access to and searching hard drives. Scary stuff except that the top data recovery labs charge thousands for forensic work on just one drive. I won't bother to do the maths on this, but needless to say, the costs associated with trying to bolster Logistep's "shot in the dark" technology by searching hard drives would far outweigh any return - and chances are there wouldn't be a trace of the offending file in most cases.

Even gaining access to internet users personal details raised more questions than answers. Davenport Lyons applied to the courts to secure from several ISPs, the details of those associated with each IP address at the time of the infringement on the basis that it was a criminal case, then used that information to threaten civil court actions. As far as I know, you cannot legally gain access to private details in such a manner in a purely civil matter.

The recent case highlighted by WHICH? of the retired Scottish couple who had recieved a letter from Davenport Lyons asking for £500 or face court action for a game they were accused of downloading, merely underlined the inaccuracy of the so-called cast iron evidence being presented. The couple had never played a computer game in their lives, and Davenport Lyons backed off quickly, although without actually admitting the evidence was flawed.

I might be persuaded to believe that Davenport Lyons themselves were innocently duped by Logistep into believing that the evidence was rock-solid, were it not for the latest row over gay porn and accusations that files are being deliberately uploaded to P2P and Davenport Lyons being engaged yet again to chase offenders with yet more letters.

Perhaps the lure of money is just too great but the name Davenport Lyons is likely to be forever linked to this fiasco even years later. Just as highwaymen and three-cornered hats have seemingly become part of the landscape once more, Atari has wisely stepped out of the limelight and a whole heap of trouble.

© Hellmail.co.uk (28 November 2008)

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