James Delahunty
6 Apr 2008 22:00
A lawyer working with Swiss anti-piracy outfit Logistep has received a ban from practicing as a lawyer for six months. Elizabeth Martin sent inappropriately agressive and deliberately false and misleading letters to thousands of alleged file sharers that had supposedly been infringing on the rights of Call of Juarez game owned by Techland.
In short, Martin has written to the file sharers and demanded a payment of €400.00 in compensation for the alleged copyright offense if the user wanted to avoid going to court. The letter went on to lead readers to believe that they would be found guilty in court and would be responsible for their own court fees, which would be "substantial."
Along with the promise of a guilty verdict, she warned the file sharers that a decision against them would amount to "hundreds of thousands of euros." The letter also ended with a threat to seize and resell the personal belongings of any user who was found guilty and couldn't pay a fine. "If you are not able to pay the damages ordered by the court, our client will seek to gain the amount by the sale of your goods," the letter concluded.
A disciplinary investigation by the Conseil de l’Ordre du Barreau de Paris disapproved of the legal threats Martin had made. "By choosing to reproduce aggressive foreign methods, intended to force payments, the interested party also violated [the code] which specifies that the lawyer cannot unfairly represent a situation or seriousness of threat," a decision against the lawyer read.