Using a mod like this means that no offense of distribution could have been carried out. Indeed, as we pointed out in our earlier report, the stats from her client showed no evidence of uploading, despite an uptime of 924 days.

The lawyers who sent the cease and desist (and a demand for 700 euros) didn’t withdraw the claims after she protested her innocence, so she took advice, went to court and filed suit against the rightsholder.

Unfortunately the judge in the case has no idea about IT issues and wants to have an independent witness examine the software used by anti-piracy tracking company Media Protector. Experts don’t come cheap and this one is set to cost 5,000 euros.

This is believed to be the first time that a neutral expert witness has had the opportunity to examine the software of an anti-piracy company in Germany. So, together with filesharing lawyer Dr. Wachs, Verein gegen den Abmahnwahn e.V and Initiative Abmahnwahn-Dreipage, our friends at news site Gulli have started a donation drive to raise the funds.

Lawyer Dr. Wachs has kindly given the woman 3,000 euros towards the expert but a further 2,000 must be raised via donations. Hopefully this amount can be achieved as engaging the skills of the expert witness will provide a golden opportunity to see exactly how these systems operate and have their shortcoming revealed in court.

Anyone wishing to contribute can do so here (bank details at bottom of article)

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Now, thanks to a Gulli investigation, the existence of a prototype anti-p2p management system has been revealed, which seems to be being developed for Logistep to more effectively manage its growing offensive against alleged file-sharers. Gulli received a tipoff to visit the site at eparken.com which although appeared incomplete, seemed to be fairly operational.

Headed with a Logistep banner and entitled ‘Logistep Data Management Tool’, one could be forgiven for linking the tool with the anti-piracy company of the same name. However, just to be certain, Gulli dug a little deeper, checking the WHOIS record of the site which revealed the registrant as Joly Nkondo Zacharie, at ‘Händelstraße 25′ in Karlsruhe. A German subsidiary of the Swiss-based Logistep is reported at the same address. Searches on ‘Händelstraße 25′ connect to both Logistep and Joly Nkondo Zacharie, who has his name present in the eparken.com WHOIS. The connection to Logistep seems unavoidable.

The site, since taken down but available in limited form via Google’s cache, appears to offer management facilities for those chasing alleged copyright infringers, including accommodation to reduce ‘fines’ and payment periods if the accused digs in his heels when confronted.

Additional features of the system include being able to sort alleged infringers in the database by location and their corresponding ISPs. It is also possible to sort by the number of users who have actually paid up following threats. In the ‘Call Center’ section could be found receipts for payment of ‘fines’ and the ability to change the terms of the compensation demands.

Logistep is absolutely adamant that it runs its operations in a completely flawless manner, using systems that produce 100% perfect results so it is of some interest that this online system has been developed with WYSIWYG Web Builder, which will be seen as some as a very unprofessional way to create a website.

Calls to the administrators of eparken.com for clarification have gone unanswered.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.