Copyright cash demand lawyers quit letter-writing campaign

The law firm Tilly Bailey Irvine Solicitors has stopped sending accusatory letters to people suspected by rights holders of copyright infringement.

In a statement reported by ISP Review on Monday, TBI said it was ceasing such work because of negative publicity.

"We have been surprised and disappointed at the amount of adverse publicity that our firm has attracted in relation to this work and the extra time and resources that have been required to deal solely with this issue," the firm said.

"We are concerned that the adverse publicity could affect other areas of our practice and therefore following discussions with our clients, we have reluctantly agreed that we will cease sending out further letters of claim."

TBI stressed that its decision was "based on purely commercial reasons", and it had not broken the Solicitors Code of Conduct in sending the letters out. Two other firms — ACS:Law and Davenport Lyons — are under investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for similar campaigns.

The firms sent out hundreds of letters accusing people of unlawful file-sharing, demanding the payment of hundreds of pounds to avoid being taken to court. As far as we know, no-one has yet chosen the court option, although it is likely that many have simply ignored the letters.