First post post!

Hi there.

My name is Penumbra, and I'm a regular poster over at the Slyck forums. You'd be right in thinking that I'm a single issue poster, and that this is a single issue blog. However, I hope to hold your attention at least a little while.

The issue I am so very obsessed about (enough to start a blog, even) is the tactics of law firm Davenport Lyons. You see, they go to great length to point out that they are a very well respected and incredibly highly regarded establishment. They mention in press releases that they have a top team of "highly specialist intellectual property lawyers". However, this highly specialised team of lawyers (along with their "information brokers" Digiprotect and Logistep) appear to think that an IP address, in isolation, is enough to threaten people with court action and requests for £500 to go away. They allege their methods are impeccable. Funny, then that so many people have come out protesting their innocence.

The fact is that it is impossible to prove that a particular person committed an act of infringement with just an IP address as evidence. You need more evidence, it's as simple as that. Using a scatter gun "justice by mailshot" approach simply is not either reasonable or proportionate. It is obvious from the sheer volume of people protesting the innocence that this is not a reliable method. In fact game maker Atari has stopped using Davenport Lyons and this kind of campaign, apparently expressing their horror at finding out they had accused an elderly couple in error. Despite this, UK ISPs are currently obliged to give out the details of their subscribers with only this single peice of evidence as a case.

This is why I am encouraging everyone to sign this petition to the Prime Minister, asking him to pressure the Information Commissioner into reviewing the law. An excellent post (which includes a form letter you can print off and send to the Information Commissioner) by lawyer Michael Coyle is available here if you want the background to it.

Obviously, I am all for copyright as it allows a model of commerce that has lead to the economic prosperity of the UK. I am not against the idea of copyright or people being able to enforce their copyright in a reasonable and proportionate manner. I am against falsely accusing people of things they have not done, with an intimidating wedge of paper demanding £500 or more if it goes to court. A mail merge letter to 26,500 people is not an appropriate way of going about enforcing your copyright.

That's all I have time for for now. Apologies for the "Wow, isn't this internet thing amazing - what we can do in the 90s!" tone of the blog so far. For my next post, I will be looking at the £500+ that Davenport Lyons currently ask for, depite the fact that the porn companies involved in the latest round (warning: link contains adult content and is NSFW (Not Safe For Work)) apparently only receive around £30 of that. According to Davenport Lyons it reflects the 'considerable cost' of taking the action. We'll see.