A Southampton-based solicitors firm, Lawdit, has predicted that next week could signal the beginning of the end of "speculative invoicing", a tactic used by dubious law firms to threaten and make money out of broadband ISP customers whom are "suspected" of unlawful copyright infringement (P2P File Sharing) activity.

The firms typically track alleged piracy by monitoring the IP addresses of internet users, which is assigned to your computer each time you go online and made public on P2P networks. This is not an effective way of determining a person's true identity because, at best, it will only reveal the connection owner (i.e. could be a shared network or business).

An IP can also easily be faked, hijacked, redirected and generally abused or used in ways that the systems employed by such trackers cannot detect. Furthermore the data itself can end up being unreliable due to natural discrepancies or errors (dates, times etc.) between an ISPs log files and that of the law firms.


Recently a number of things have begun to occur and look set to finally change this dynamic, which many consumers feel to be a tactic that has more in common with blackmail than real law work. Firstly, some big UK ISPs ( BT , PlusNet ) have started to stand up by actually challenging Norwich Pharmacal Orders (NPO), which request the release of related customer data.

Secondly the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) has officially referred several related firms, including ACS:Law (Andrew Crossley) and Davenport Lyons UK, to a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) over their threatening letters.

In the latest twist even courts have now started to wake up to the problem and appear to be growing less inclined to tolerate such firms. Next week this could all come to a head when Judge Birss QC tackles ACS:Law and intermediary MediaCAT head on about some of their tactics (here).


On top of all that there's also the 2010 Digital Economy Act (DEA) to consider, although this is currently subject to a Judicial Review (here and here) in the early spring and as a result it's unclear whether or not its final form will need some adjustment. The recent developments have also delayed Ofcom's construction of a code to go alongside the DEA. More next week.