The law firm specializes in sending out letters demanding cash in return for dropping non-existent cases of illegal file sharing. Many people have seen their lives turned upside down by the spurious allegations and the shocking scare tactics have generated enormous amounts of bad press for lawyers working in the IP sector.

The Solicitors Regulatory Body has received an unprecedented number of complaints in the last twelve months about ACS: Law, many of which relate to the actions of Andrew Crossley, a lawyer who has already been hauled up before a tribunal and severely reprimanded for behaviour that was described as “unbefitting” of a lawyer. Several consumer groups, including Which? have also blasted the law firm for their reprehensible behaviour.

The news that ACS: Law is facing a tribunal for its atrocious treatment of innocent people is being seen as welcome news by the same consumer groups, many of whom are hoping for a temporary hold on all file sharing cases involving ACS: Law.

The Halo sequel, Reach, had been tipped for global success by industry insiders and was all set for a September 14th launch date in the UK. Unfortunately, hackers managed to find away to bypass the security protocols on the Xbox website and secure an advanced copy of the game that had been made available to press and reviewers.

Despite the hackers initially claiming that they were not intending to distribute the game, it soon appeared in popular peer to peer file sharing websites. Within a very short space of time, news of the impromptu release had spread across the internet like a wild fire and gamers were eagerly downloading illegal copies of Reach.

Microsoft have been quick to remind users of file sharing websites that they are taking the digital theft extremely seriously and will be doing everything in their power to find the parties responsible, plus anyone else who might be involved in some way.

Researchers discovered that despite many families seeing a significant reduction in their disposable income in recent times, there was no evidence that this was encouraging them to spend more time downloading music and other media files from popular file sharing websites on the Internet, although customers who had made significant cutbacks in their family budget were more likely to cut back their spending on CD’s and DVD’s and more likely to interact with filesharing sites. Most of this filesharing activity relates to music downloads with around 86% of people questioned admitting to downloading unlicensed music files, as opposed to 31% for both TV and films.

The conclusion drawn by the Interpret report is that this is great news for content providers and creators, but since the vast majority only download small amounts of music from popular file sharing sites, hopefully the industry will turn its attention elsewhere.

Torrentreactor.net is a search engine for torrent files that allows users to download digital content using the BitTorrent protocol. The site earns money from advertising revenue and even though the villagers of Gar have never heard of Torrentreactor.net and BitTorrent protocol, they might soon get the chance to find out because, as part of the deal, Torrentreactor.net has also agreed to pay for a broadband internet connection to Gar, which will give the village a brand new high speed internet access to the outside world.

What IS surprising is that this file sharing ability goes against the Universal Music Group’s wishes. UMG is the worlds largest music company and they have been trying to force many net companies to implement licenses for users who wish to backup, download, and stream music files from so-called “cloud” services. Apples sneaky little iDisk app bypasses all this and lets users stream music to portable audio devices and PC’s without a license.

Unsurprisingly, with Apple continually pushing the file sharing boundaries in its battle with the big music industry heavyweights, this can only be a good thing for consumers.

The group’s executive director, Jim Killock, has openly criticized the lack of standards set for required evidence. He says the draft code makes it impossible to check any evidence produced by the music industry in court cases against alleged illegal file sharers. In effect, the music industry will simply have to say their evidence is ok and even if they make a mistake, they will not be penalized.

In the light of many embarrassing illegal file sharing court cases in the US, the need for a clear chain of evidence is vital, says the ORG. Although Ofcom have highlighted a “quality assurance process” they have been extremely vague about how this will actually take place and the ORG say this is simply not enough.

As a result, the Open Rights Group are demanding that the draft file sharing code be torn up and the code redrafted to clearly state how evidence is obtained as well as the minimum standard that evidence should be.

PRS is hoping that by introducing this fine against ISP’s, illegal filesharing through broadband networks will end forever. The Digital Economy Act has already stated that illegal filesharing is a problem that needs to be measured, and since the technology is already available that can accurately track users who download files via peer-to-peer networks, PRS thinks that piracy levies are the next logical step in the process.

The PRS for Music report, “Moving Digital Britain Forward Without Leaving Creative Britain Behind”, claims to offer an economic framework for use in structuring a sensible resolution to the problem. Any money raised via fines would be paid to the state or to the rights holders. This amount would be entirely dependent on filesharing traffic over the ISP networks.

Once the two industries stop arguing, it looks likely that file sharers will soon be subject to prohibitive fines.

FileHippo is the latest buzz in the online file sharing field. It is changing the concept of internet download as it collectively organized the basic and important computer programs into one site and offered for free to the users. The process of download to this site is relatively fast compared to other site that offers the same computer programs.

FileHippo has the complete basic and necessary programs to download. You can download here video players such as VLC Media Player, Media Monkey and Quicktime Player. You can also download here popular browsers and plug ins. This site is really amazing and is complete.

FileHippo has remarkably improved the online search for most of the basic but needed program on a computer. It is currently the hottest website that offer a wide arrange of computer programs. Do not be left behind by your peers: visit the site now and start downloading the programs that you need.