Last updated 13:47, Friday, 21 November 2008

A BARROW woman thought she was the target of a scam when she received a letter demanding £500 and accusing her of illegally downloading a song off the internet.

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LEGAL ACTION: Angela Lucas is being sued for copyright infringement. INSET: Graeme Lee LINDSEY DICKINGS REF: 0459695

Angela Lucas, who lives with her four children on Mount Pleasant,Barrow, was terrified when she received the letter from lawyers at Davenport Lyons, saying she was being sued for copyright infringement.

Mrs Lucas, 41, said: “I never even use the computer, and I’ve asked my children but they don’t know anything about it.”

Earlier this month, consumer champion Which? launched an investigation after an elderly couple were threatened with legal action by the same law firm, accusing them of illegally downloading a computer game.

Which? said it found a number of cases where innocent people were being accused of illegal downloading, and following the investigation, Davenport Lyons dropped the case.

Mrs Lucas said: “It’s absolutely ridiculous, I went on the internet to look into it and there are 45 other people who have been sent similar letters, and only two of them have paid up.”

In the letter, Davenport Lyons claims: “Our client has retained forensic computer analysts to search for and identify internet addresses from which their copyright works are being made available on so called ‘peer to peer’ internet sites.”

But Mrs Lucas says she has no such software on her computer and has never even heard of the growing phenomena of file-sharing.

Mrs Lucas has said she is prepared to contest the evidence, and managing partner of Lawyers Direct, James Knight, believes she has a very good chance of winning. Mr Knight said: “The level of compensation they are seeking is based on the fact that other people could have potentially downloaded the song off this lady. The claimant has to prove that the loss that they have suffered is this exact amount, it is almost impossible.

“If this went to court and the claimant was successful then the amount payable would only be the cost of one song plus interest.”

Trading Standards confirmed it has received a complaint about Davenport Lyons and DigiProtect. Spokesman Pat Thomas said: “We have been made aware of this organisation and we are carrying out some enquiries.”

Ofcom, the communications watchdog, said it was unaware of the proceedings against individuals.

Spokeswoman Amber Peers said: “Ofcom has been given a role by government as facilitator between music rights holders and internet service providers. ISPs are currently sending out notifications to people who are illegally file sharing. I understand that your reader received a solicitor’s letter. This is unrelated to any work that Ofcom is doing in this area therefore they should probably seek legal advice and contact the solicitor.”

Davenport Lyons said today they would contact Mrs Lucas to try and resolve the situation as a matter of priority.