The Norwegian Consumer Council Warns about Legal Letters

Norwegian Consumer Council is rather unhappy these days as Norwegian law firm Simonsen Advokatfirma DA has been sending letters to ISPs in the country which are supposed in turn to send them further to users who have allegedly shared copyright material. The Council says that agreeing to such a letter and signing it would be far from smart.

According to Bit-tech.net the letters in question (apparently at least three hundred to date ) identify the users by IP address, and accuse them of sharing copyright video using p2p networks. In case the ISPs do act accordingly and their customers receive the letters, the latter are expected to sign and return the letter considered as a pledge never to embark on illegal online activities such as file-sharing. The users should now, though, that by doing as mentioned he or she will not be guaranteed a total let off – the silly (to put it delicately) act of signing such a document and return it would ensure the sender being liable for both former and future file-sharing activity on the identified IP address( even in the case it’s done by another member of the household).

Hans Marius Graasvold, an officer of the NCC, is utterly recommending people not to sign as this would be sheer madness. Recently, Graasvold explained that the letters deprive the customers of their right to due process, and lead them on a ambiguous legal grounds exposing them open to future lawsuits.

On the same wavelength the Norwegian ISP industry association has been expecting this strategy and is firmly advising its members to throw away the letters and forget about forwarding anything coming from the law firm to any of their customers.