Porn user list leaked from law firm that pursues pirates

Emil

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Tens of thousands of Internet porn users in the UK have had their emails containing personal information leaked online, along with which content they've downloaded and shared, according to BBC News. The list reportedly includes over 5,300 names and addresses of Sky broadband customers, their IP addresses, and some credit card details.

The entire archive was first uploaded to the Pirate Bay, but has since spread to other file sharing networks, and has been downloaded thousands of times. The list originates from a law firm by the name of ACS:Law Solicitors, which specializes in assisting intellectual property rights holders to exploit and enforce their rights. ACS:Law compiled the list in order to track down Internet pirates and then send letters demanding compensation for copyright holders.

Now, users who have previously received letters from the company demanding money, as well as those who have paid using their credit cards, are being warned to beware of criminals making unsolicited calls and/or unusual transactions. Experts are expecting fraud, identity theft, and severe emotional distress for those affected.

The attack was carried out by 4Chan under the same Payback campaign the site used to target the MPAA and RIAA just over a week ago. ACS:Law's website was taken down by the attack for much of the week, but when it came back up, it appears that the 365MB file containing the confidential information was inadvertently published on the site's front page. While ACS:Law's email archive was exposed after the DDoS attack, there's no evidence that the web server was compromised, meaning that the data breach was caused by poor security and administration.

Protesting against the methods used by ACS:Law to pursue alleged file sharers is one thing, but it gets serious when those the law firm is pursuing have become victims. The UK's Information Commissioner's Office is now investigating the whole ordeal.

Permalink to story.

 
Lurker101 said:
And I fully approve of the attacks by 4chan

These attacks may raise more attention though. Interesting to see what may happen in the near future... even though, I approve because I appreciate privacy.
 
i would advise people who have received letters from these guys to seek a personal injury claim, .
 
trillionsin said:
These attacks may raise more attention though. Interesting to see what may happen in the near future... even though, I approve because I appreciate privacy.

I'm sure it's easy to approve of this move when it's not yourself who has their name, address, and credit card information pasted into a torrent file. You appreciate privacy at the expense of others'?
 
It would be nice to see some payback dealt to the lawfirm, not the people they were pursuing legal action against.
 
DokkRokken said:
trillionsin said:
These attacks may raise more attention though. Interesting to see what may happen in the near future... even though, I approve because I appreciate privacy.

I'm sure it's easy to approve of this move when it's not yourself who has their name, address, and credit card information pasted into a torrent file. You appreciate privacy at the expense of others'?

If i am understanding this article correctly, perhaps I do mean what I said.
 
@ DokkRokken

When you are trying to win a great battle, there will always be losses and sacrifices have to be made.
 
hellokitty[hk] said:
LMAO 4chan is a force to be reckoned with; too bad legal authorities simply can't submit to their power.

In some ways I think they have. 4Chan could be taken down for a number of legal reasons, though they are such a powerful entity that authorities may consider it a bad move to take any action against them as a whole. Plus, since 4chan has no memory or logs per se, it would be futile to try and prove anything against them.
 
I wonder how many children in the world say, if they were asked, "what do you want to be when you grow up", would say, "I want to be a copyright attorney for a pornographers cartel"....!

This career choice has to be a step way down in status from cleaning sewers, or even robbing poor boxes.
 
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