AfterDawn: Tech news

ACS:Law keeps more from copyright fines than copyright holders

Written by James Delahunty @ 06 Oct 2010 3:25 User comments (4)

ACS:Law keeps more from copyright fines than copyright holders According to research from The Guardian, London-based law firm ACS:Law keeps about 40 percent of the copyright infringement fines paid as settlements by alleged pirates. Out of a typical letter demanding a £300 settlement from an Internet user accused of sharing files illegally, ACS:Law would expect to pocket about $120, while the rights holder of the content in question could expect between £60 and £90.
About 10 percent of the settlement fee is paid to the company that retrieved the IP address of the alleged copyright infringer. Internet service providers can expect as much as 15 percent of the fee to cover the costs of retrieving and sending subscribers personal information following a court order.

Germany-based record label, Zooland Records, which owns the copyright to Cascada's Evacuate the Dancefloor single (often the track alleged to have been shared illegally in ACS:law complaints), would not give a comment to The Guardian, with a spokesman saying the company was instructed not to talk about or ACS:Law by bosses.



Other reports have shown that ACS:Law can expect to pocket even more of the sums paid by those accused of downloading and sharing adult entertainment content illegally. Last week's data leak implicated 5,000 UK broadband users as having downloaded or uploaded pornography.

ACS:Law could be liable of up to $500,000 itself following a major data leak following a cyber-attack. The data included the personal details of thousands of broadband customers in the UK, as well as internal ACS:Law e-mails and other content.

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4 user comments

16.10.2010 17:12

This isn't much of a surprise anymore

27.10.2010 12:28

Err sounds like a debt collection arrangement. Have someone else find out who owes you and collect...They are doing all the work so why shouldn't they keep the $$$? I guess in the end the record company is getting profit they wouldn't have seen at all otherwise. Sad thing is I bet the artists are getting NOTHING...

Aside from the obvious extortion issues and etc..lol

37.10.2010 16:30

Extortion with menaces, nothing more nothing less.

47.10.2010 19:42

Originally posted by dEwMe:
Err sounds like a debt collection arrangement. Have someone else find out who owes you and collect...They are doing all the work so why shouldn't they keep the $$$? I guess in the end the record company is getting profit they wouldn't have seen at all otherwise. Sad thing is I bet the artists are getting NOTHING...

Aside from the obvious extortion issues and etc..lol

I agree dEwMe except that I see lots of artists who have nice things...

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