ACS:Law chief still being investigated over letters

Andrew Crossley, a lawyer who was behind hundreds of letters sent to people accusing them of unlawful file-sharing, is still under investigation over the letters despite the closure of his firm ACS:Law, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has confirmed.

The investigation by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal continues as it relates to Crossley personally, rather than to his firm, a spokesperson for the regulator told ZDNet UK on Monday. ACS:Law and MediaCAT, the firm that was pursuing the alleged infringers on behalf of copyright holders, both ceased trading in recent weeks, according to the BBC.

In December, ACS:Law failed to gain summary judgement against eight of the alleged infringers, with Judge Birss of the London Patents County Court pointing out that the case was too complicated for such an administrative resolution — ACS:Law had incorrectly claimed that the defendants allowing others to use their Wi-Fi networks to download copyrighted material was in itself an infringing act.

Then, last month, ACS:Law and MediaCAT tried to drop their 27 outstanding infringement cases, with Crossley announcing his resignation from ACS:Law due to "death threats and bomb threats [that] caused immense hassle to me and my family". Judge Birss suggested that ACS:Law was trying to "avoid any judicial scrutiny" and is now set to give his judgement on the matter on Tuesday.