''AMP v. Persons Unknown'' is a case from the

Technology and Construction Court The King's Bench Division (or Queen's Bench Division when the monarch is female) of the High Court of Justice deals with a wide range of common law cases and has supervisory responsibility over certain lower courts. It hears appeals on poin ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. The decision in the case was published on 10 January 2012, and involved a woman who had experienced

blackmail Blackmail is an act of coercion using the threat of revealing or publicizing either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to fa ...

and

harassment Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behavior that demeans, humiliates or embarrasses a person, and it is characteristically identified by its unlikelihood in terms of social and moral ...

after sexually explicit pictures of her taken on a

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whi ...

camera were uploaded to BitTorrent file-sharing websites.

Background

While she was at university in June 2008, the woman, who was referred to in the court documents as ''AMP'', discovered that her mobile phone had been lost or stolen. Previously, around August 2007, the camera on the phone had been used to take photographs "of an explicit sexual nature which were taken for the personal use of her boyfriend at the time." Shortly afterwards, she was contacted on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...

by a person identifying himself as "Nils Henrik-Derimot", who threatened to expose her identity, post the images widely online and tell her friends about the images if she did not add him as a

friend Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people. It is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an "acquaintance" or an "association", such as a classmate, neighbor, coworker, or colleague. In some cultures, the concept of ...

on Facebook. The woman deleted the messages and blocked the sender. Additionally, "At about the same time her father's business public relations team were contacted and allegedly threatened and blackmailed about some images but it was not specified that the images were of her". On 2 November 2008, the images were uploaded to a Swedish website hosting BitTorrent files. This resulted in the link to the BitTorrent files appearing at the top of the list of

search engine A search engine is a software system designed to carry out web searches. They search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a ...

searches for her name. AMP's solicitors used the

Digital Millennium Copyright Act The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or ...

to remove some of the links from U.S. based search engine results.

2011 case in the Technology and Construction Court

After hearing the case on 8 and 19 December 2011, The Hon. Mr. Justice Ramsey granted the woman involved anonymity, and ruled that the ''Persons Unknown'' who were seeding (i.e. uploading) the files in question would be breaking the law, and that the

IP Address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...

of a seeder could be traced by a court order. The judge cited

Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights provides a right to respect for one's "private and family life, his home and his correspondence", subject to certain restrictions that are "in accordance with law" and " necessary in a democrati ...

, which guarantees the "Right to respect for private and family life", and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 as the basis of his decision.

Reactions

''AMP v. Persons Unknown'' was described by ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' as "a landmark". The case was believed to be the first time that a court had granted an injunction prohibiting the downloading of specific files shared via BitTorrent technology. Andrew Murray, Professor of Law at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 milli ...

who acted as an

expert witness An expert witness, particularly in common law countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, is a person whose opinion by virtue of education, training, certification, skills or experience, is accepted by the judge as ...

, wrote that the case "provides a new approach to the regulation of online content for individuals" and could show that "content on BitTorrent may just be regulatable after all". Conservative MP

Louise Mensch Louise Daphne Mensch (''née'' Bagshawe; born 28 June 1971) is a British blogger, novelist, and former Conservative Member of Parliament. In the 1990s she became known as a writer of chick lit novels under her maiden name Louise Bagshawe. She ...

said of ''AMP'' "She has courageously struck a blow for women and privacy".

References

External links

New Approach to Privacy: ''AMP v Persons Unknown''
Professor Andrew Murray, 20 December 2011. {{English law types 2011 in England English privacy case law Legal history of the United Kingdom High Court of Justice cases 2011 in United Kingdom case law

Background

2011 case in the Technology and Construction Court

Reactions

See also

References

External links