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ACS:Law were recently targeted by a DDoS attack to take down their website. Owner Andrew Crossley boasted that he did not care about the attack even though his site was down for a short while. Unfortunately it seems a mistake made by technicians when restoring his site has exposed his passwords to the web. With that, his entire corporate email history and site was copied and uploaded to thepiratebay. Oh dear.
People are still sifting through the masses of emails, but details of how the company operated - its threat-o-grams, internal process etc are all now in plain sight to see. According to the articles, such gems included in there are; taking money off people who outright denied liability, threatening people with no evidence to back up those threats, what appears to be evidence of full on extortion as well as evidence that fines were only applied to people with the money to pay for them. Oh and theres the massive data protection Act breach by letting peoples personal details, Ips and addresses get leaked to the internet due to very lax IT security.
It seems as of april this year they had clawed in over £600,000 in 'fines' from people, and figures show that anywhere from 40 to 50% of those fines went directly into the pockets of ACS:Law as their 'fee'
Grab some popcorn and sit back for a giggle. This appears to be the beginning of the end for ACS:Laws threat-o-matic business
The deconstruction of the emails is ongoing, but you can find posts here:
http://torrentfreak.com/acslaw-anti-...emails-100925/
http://torrentfreak.com/acslaw-gay-p...ed-men-100925/
http://torrentfreak.com/leaked-emails-reveal-profits-of-anti-piracy-cash-scheme-100926/
While I cant condone obtaining data by means of hacking and sharing in this way, I cant help but feel this is just deserts for the way this company operated.
People are still sifting through the masses of emails, but details of how the company operated - its threat-o-grams, internal process etc are all now in plain sight to see. According to the articles, such gems included in there are; taking money off people who outright denied liability, threatening people with no evidence to back up those threats, what appears to be evidence of full on extortion as well as evidence that fines were only applied to people with the money to pay for them. Oh and theres the massive data protection Act breach by letting peoples personal details, Ips and addresses get leaked to the internet due to very lax IT security.
A single mother of two explains how her husband who left her the previous year could have been responsible for the infringement and offers to pay the ‘fine’ of £495 in installments for £20/£30 per month. Despite ACS:Law accepting that the lady did not infringe, a company employee advises “I believe this [the offer to pay in installments] should be accepted.”
We have hardly reached the tip of the iceberg with these emails, there are many hundreds left to go but even at this stage, things are certain. Nearly all emails revolve around money. Money being demanded, money being transferred from one company to another. Emails promising employees of more money if they do this, that. Emails to companies telling them how much money they can make by becoming a partner in all of this.
This is not about copyrights and reducing piracy. Copyrights are simply being used as a method to generate money. Thus far, we have not seen a single email or piece of correspondence which talks about reducing piracy.
This is not about copyrights and reducing piracy. Copyrights are simply being used as a method to generate money. Thus far, we have not seen a single email or piece of correspondence which talks about reducing piracy.
Grab some popcorn and sit back for a giggle. This appears to be the beginning of the end for ACS:Laws threat-o-matic business
The deconstruction of the emails is ongoing, but you can find posts here:
http://torrentfreak.com/acslaw-anti-...emails-100925/
http://torrentfreak.com/acslaw-gay-p...ed-men-100925/
http://torrentfreak.com/leaked-emails-reveal-profits-of-anti-piracy-cash-scheme-100926/
While I cant condone obtaining data by means of hacking and sharing in this way, I cant help but feel this is just deserts for the way this company operated.
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