Speculating on the demise of speculative invoicing

With the news that Andrew Crossley has been banned from practising law for two years, plus Golden Eye, yet another firm engaged in speculative invoicing failing to convince a judge of the merits of its cases, is this the end of speculative invoicing?

One can only hope so.

I am no supporter of copyright infringement. But these deeply disturbing schemes, which were soon found to have no legal legs to stand on, have caused huge misery to the thousands of people who were the targets of these firms.

While among the people who received letters demanding money there were no doubt a few who were guilty of illegal filesharing. But the majority were not. However because in these cases the content alleged to have been downloaded illegally was pornography, many people innocent of what they were accused no doubt paid up through sheer embarrassment and fear.

So while it seems as if these particular schemes are dead ducks now - they are certainly not financially viable for the firms involved, the issue of illegal downloading is still high on the agenda. Just think of the US  SOPA and PIPA laws that the entertainment industry is lobbying hard to push through. 

And while Crossley's humiliation in front of the Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal yesterday must have been greeted by many as ‘sweet', we need to remember he didn't act alone.

The people who worked at ACS Law with Crossley and who appear to have been very much involved with his scheme have faced no repercussions at all. It is a shame the extent of their involvement and any culpability they bear in the ‘scheme of things' hasn't been investigated.

My natural cynicism means that I have no doubt we haven't seen the last of 'ingenious' ways to try to part people with their money under the guise of protecting copyright holders.