Legal wrangling
BT has been granted an adjournment as it fights a court order by law firm Gallant Macmillan to obtain details of its customers accused of illegally downloading and sharing Ministry of Sound tracks.
Gallant Macmillan signalled it wanted to chase down file sharers and went to the High Court in a bid to get hold of the personal details of hundreds of PlusNet users, despite the recent ACS:Law debacle.
BT said it would fight court orders asking for its customers' details unless the rights holder or law firm could prove the accusations against its users had ‘some basis,' according to The Guardian.
The company has already admitted handing over the personal details of more than 500 of its customers to pirate hunters ACS:Law without even securing the list, which could see it hit with a fine of up to half a million pounds if the Information Commissioner finds it is in breach of the Data Protection Act.
BT told The Guardian: "The incident involving the ACS:Law data leak has further damaged people's confidence in the current process. We're pleased that the court has agreed to an adjournment so that our concerns can be examined by the court, this will then act as a precedent/test case for the future."
"We want to ensure broadband subscribers are adequately protected so that rights holders can pursue their claims for copyright infringement without causing unnecessary worry to innocent people. We have not simply consented to these orders in the past, we have asked for stricter terms as public concern has risen," a spokesperson reportedly added.
Most ISPs have no said they will take a stand against court orders brought by ACS:Law and other similar firms.
Hundreds of UK broadband users who have been accused of downloading or sharing copyrighted material are reportedly mulling launching collective legal action against ACS:Law following details being leaked.
The people planning a legal assault on the controversial law firm reportedly claim to have been wrongly accused and are annoyed about the methodology used to identify pirates.
Despite private information of thousands of broadband users being splashed all over the web by 4chan and ISPs vowing to tighten their security measure and challenge court orders requesting the information be handed over so they can pursue possible pirates, the court order survives.
