Repeated Waves of Cease and Desist Letters

Waves of Cease and Desist Letters Repeatedly Announced

In press releases, the music industry, including Sony, BMG, and other relevant companies, repeatedly announce that they intend to initiate new waves of cease and desist letters. The intention is often to combat thousands of alleged or actual copyright infringements through cease and desist letters.

With these initiatives, they aim to take massive action against illegal music and video downloads. The focus is less on the actual download itself. Rather, cease and desist letters have so far been regularly sent only to those who knowingly or unknowingly make files available for download by others. This is easier to investigate.

This approach by the music industry is made possible and facilitated by a change in legislation, whereby the industry can directly assert claims for information from the internet providers of alleged copyright infringers, thus enabling them to determine more quickly which internet account holder is behind a specific internet address.

Even later attempts by the legislature to restrict this have ultimately failed.

Therefore, this nuisance still persists.

Defense is Possible

Those who attempt to fend off these attacks on their own to save costs (legal protection insurance generally does not cover copyright disputes due to an explicit exclusion clause) will often end up paying more than in the case of competent legal advice. Depending on the individual case, one must consider whether it is advisable to

• submit a cease and desist declaration,
• modify the declaration demanded by the warning lawyer,
• acknowledge payment claims, or
• negotiate possible claims.

There are indeed defense possibilities against such cease and desist letters. Therefore, upon receiving such warnings, it is advisable to quickly coordinate the approach and possible strategies with competent help.