Anti-pirates hit Danish P2P users with huge bills

(Source: The Register )

The Danish Anti Pirat Gruppen (Anti Piracy Group) has issued invoices of up to $14,000 apiece to approximately 150 users of KaZaA and eDonkey for illegally downloading copyright material.

APG monitored the file sharing networks for available files with Danish IP addresses – and went to court to get the users’ personal details from their ISPs, armed with screen shots of, for example, the KaZaA window showing the files on the user’s hard-drive. The courts obliged and ordered the ISPs to deliver the personal details of the incriminated users. Then the bills were in the post … landing on the mats of the unfortunate downloaders over the last few days.

The users are charged about $16 per CD and about $60 per full length movie. If they pay now – and delete the illegal content from their hard drives – then the amount is cut in half and they avoid going to court. Those who don’t pay up are to be sued.

Question is: if the APG has only the file names from KaZaA or eDonkey – how can it make sure that they really are illegal files and not only “similar named files” or hoax files? Can APG prove that is the work of a certain user in a household – or will it go for the entire family?

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