O2 porn filesharers to be sent letters from film-maker
O2 customers suspected of illegally sharing pornographic films made by Ben Dover Productions will begin receiving letters from the film-maker shortly.
The firm won a court order in March forcing O2 to pass on details of the owners of 9,124 IP addresses linked to illegal downloads.
The High Court has now approved the text of the message that will be sent.
Ben Dover has said its focus is on users who had uploaded films to others.
The commercial director of the firm – which is registered at Companies House as Golden Eye International – said that parties who “simply downloaded one film” would not be pursued.
Julian Becker said:
Threats
It is understood that recipients will be told what to do to negotiate a settlement, and will be warned that if they do not respond they could be found liable.
They will be given 28 days to reply after the judge said that a 14 day limit requested by Ben Dover was “unreasonable“.
The firm was also told it could not specify compensation of £700 but should individually negotiate a settlement sum with each defendant.
The judge added that a threat to tell users it would ask the ISP to “slow down or terminate your internet connection” if they did not comply was unjustified.
A statement from O2 said:
Adult content
The action is the latest in a series of efforts to clamp down on online piracy
US authorities shut down file-sharing site Megaupload in January and are attempting to extradite its founder and administrators from New Zealand to stand trial for copyright infringement and other related offences.
Courts in the UK, Greece, the Netherlands, Italy and India have also ordered ISPs to block access to a number of file-sharing sites over the past month.
While such efforts form an attempt to clamp down on a wide range of media piracy, Ben Dover suggests its sector of the industry has been particularly hard hit.
“Due to the nature of the way most consumers view adult content, the adult business has been affected far worse than mainstream film due to the fact that the pirates cannot replicate the cinematic experience of mainstream films,” Mr Becker said.
