At some point saying "I'm 86" isn't going to be a viable defence.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37834766

I'm not shocked by the bottom feeding antics of these guys, but I am surprised at the game.

I would not have thought any publisher that released DRM free would waste money and hard earned PR by hiring such scum bags.

I like this part best:
"Copyright holders such as game developers and film studios are typically hiring third-party firms to collect money from the alleged pirates.
In this case, the private firm Canadian Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement (CANIPRE) sent the letter."

So bad reporting again OR did this company not even have the contract to do this job anyway. There are a lot of lawyers around doing this without having any contract with the owner of said IP (int. prop.).
Hence I must say, stupid Canadian law which opens the gates of lawyers hell.

Plus: How did they get this information without a judge? This amounts to a search warrant without ever a search warrant being done. If I understood this correctly. So is it even legal?

EDIT:
Nowhere did this article mentioned IF the publisher did give this job to them. (or the devs)
EDIT2: According to wiki the rights for Metro series are with Koch media

I think basing that system on IP addresses was a mistake.

If I'm not mistaken, your IP isn't permanently unique to you, so if a previous user of that IP was the one who pirated the game, the current user is the one footing the bill. There is a way to discourage piracy, and this law is not it.

Do other countries have laws similar to Notice and Notice regulations? Seriously, what the fuck Canada?

Edit: Yeah, just noticed the thing about IPs not being unique enough was already pointed out in the article.

Good point.
Though I think the Copyright Modernisation Act allows these firms to say this IP stole our (potential) clients stuff, give us their address, without the need of a Judge.
I hate this speculative invoicing

I don't think they were actually hired by Metro's Devs or Pubs, who are Ukranian and German (respectively).

Could this firm be considered a class of Copyright Troll?

What a load of crap. Scare mongering and nothing more.

They do that kind of thing all the time over here, parking tickets (the non council kind, which are legal) particularly. They scare you into trying to pay a massively inflated 'fine' when they have no legal leg to stand on. They'll never take it to court because it would cost more than it's worth so if you fight them at all they drop it.
They make a living off the people too scared not to pay up immediately.

Sorry some more editing ;)

What I see Koch has no office in Canada, closest would be US. But even if they could make this claim, I am still not sure if they can get this information without a judge. It is proven (see MS) that they used illegal means to obtain the IP address and only a judge could value this information and also giving the owner of the IP the right do defend against a (possible) false accusation.

At least in Germany something like that is forbidden.

I went through some links in the links:

"In order to help avoid legal action, we have been authorized bv Koch Media to offer you a settlement opportunity that we believe is reasonable for everyone."

Which is kind of bullshit. Every information I found is that this games belongs to the daughter company deep silver. And further in this note, they only (lawyers) refer to a URL for settling this. That really sounds bogus.

"To access the settlement offer for this claim: you have until XXXXXX to visit the provided URL and complete the settlement instructions"

http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3199120-Cogeco-Settlement-Letter-Blurred.html

EDIT:
Did some more checking:
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/anti-piracy-company-in-montreal-finds-itself-accused-of-using-pirated-images-on-its-own-website
Edit2:
https://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-firm-caught-pirating-news-articles-150107/

I'm suprised people don't remember this:

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/12/15/cd-projekt-threatening-alleged-pirates/

However, I personally don't see a clear connection with allowing your game to be sold without DRM, and not caring that it is pirated. It is just the question what is the proper way to try to catch the people pirating your DRM-free game...

Never heard of Abmahnanwälte? In Germany the situation is the same. If someone records your IP during downloading something illegally, then the ISP is required to give out the user that had the IP at that given time, if lawyers ask for it.

Yes, but it has to go via a judge. You don't remember this big screw up of IIRC red porn? (can't remember the title). But one of those(lawyers) filed a claim, which was not even on behalves of the porn side, they tricked a judge into signing the lets call it search warrant. And as it turned out it was a big screw up.

Shortly afterwards (AFAIR) these lawyer had to close down his office. Never really heard what happened with him.

So? A judge signing a form is just a formality. Or do you think the judges spent hours upon hours checking hundreds of those cases thouroughly before they sign anything? They just assume that the accused will complain if something is not correct, afterall, if that's the case, it's the lawyers problem.

The article said the ISP is required to report cases of illegal downloading to the IP owner, who contracts the company to go after the violator. Your ISP has access to your activity and most even tell you that your activity is monitored by the ISP. There is no warrant or anything else required in this case. It would be like a teacher searching a student's locker and finding cocaine, and subsequently calling the police to have the student arrested.

To quote you: To quote myself: So, where do you stay with your comment (s)?
It is not only a formality, it is a search warrant and has to be taken as such, SERIOUS. It is an invasion of privacy which is protected by the GG. Same as no fucking lawyer can just enter your house/flat at his own will!
I do know that this fault did have some serious consequences. It was reported that new claims were lawyers were mass asking for release of this information were by default turned down. I did hear/read that there were also some criminal investigations made against the judge, even by this porn side owner. And no, it is NOT only the lawyers problem.

You can be DRM free and care about piracy, but this isn't the way to go about it.