Sky customers sweat after fingering from porn firm

Thousands of Sky customers could be about to get a nasty shock in the post after the company warned them that they are likely to receive legal letters from adult entertainment production company Golden Eye, demanding they cough up cash for illegally downloading porn movies.
The move follows a High Court case brought by Golden Eye against O2 nearly three years ago, forcing the telecoms company to hand over a list of 9,124 IP addresses belonging to customers which the firm claimed had also breached its copyright.
While it won the case, the judge overruled Golden Eye’s plans to charge each customer £700 per film, saying it was “unsupportable”. Instead he said that each case should be individually negotiated.
Now, Sky says Golden Eye has “successfully applied for a court order” against it, forced the firm to hand over the names and addresses Golden Eye – home to Ben Dover – had identified as being associated with downloading films illegally.
“We have written to all affected customers, advising them carefully to read the letter from Golden Eye, and if they want any further help, to contact the Citizens’ Advice Bureau,” Sky said in a statement.
Opinion is sharply divided over how successful the action will be. Golden Eye director Julian Becker told the BBC that his firm did intend to pursue cases in court if defendants did not want to settle and had issued proceedings against a number of people.
However, Michael Coyle, a lawyer who has represented hundreds of clients who have faced similar letters, said it was “unlikely” Golden Eye would take any of the cases to court as it would be very difficult for it to prove anyone had downloaded the films, without “an admittance of guilt or inspecting their hard drive”.