Hacking/ACS Law scandal in UK

[xboxbreaker]

Hi,
I dont know if many of you have been following the ACS-Law scandal here in the UK. Here is a link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11418962

I don't use torrent sites or any P2P. I am just curious how these companies are operating?
Are they taking IP addresses from the torrent trackers? or do they have an army of people using these programs and recording IP address connections?

Just seems a bit ridiculous that they are allowed to make profit this way, basically I doubt they can prove in court that someone has broken the law from the evidence collected (are users legally responsible for everything attributed to their IP add?) and they are trying to make money by scaremongering people. I mean, it is an interesting choice of copyright material they went for...

[Gazcoigne]

I think its just plain scaremongering to force people to pay up without having to go to court.

It would never hold up in court as a good barrister could argue that the defendants modem was cloned, or their wireless network was hacked or else their PC was hacked using a rootkit etc and that the person was unknowingly sharing stuff on P2P on their system, but by someone else.

therefore by weighing in with a scary letter and the prospect of having to shell out tons of cash if you pushed it to court, these companies are purely scaring people into parting with their money.

IMHO these companies should not be allowed to operate in this way, after all you are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, and these IP lists prove absolutely nothing.