US firm TCYK, apparently named after film The Company You Keep, made Sky hand over details of customers accused of downloading movie

Dozens of UK broadband customers have received letters from a US firm accusing them of pirating a little-known Robert Redford film and inviting them to pay a financial settlement on pain of further legal action.

TCYK LLC, a legal firm apparently named after the initials of the film in question, The Company You Keep, obtained a court order against Sky Broadband this year requiring it to hand over the details of customers that TCYK alleges used torrent sites to download and distribute the film.

The case is the latest in a series of speculative invoicing claims, whereby copyright holders issue letters to individuals demanding money to settle a piracy claim, with the threat of legal action if they fail to comply.



The controversial practice relies on the assumption that the copyright owner can link a specific act of piracy with an IP address – the unique number assigned to every computer on a network – and that the bill-payer currently tied to that IP address is the same person who committed the copyright infringement.

Many of those accused in previous cases have denied any involvement in file-sharing. In the latest case, the piracy is alleged to have taken place in 2013, but the the company making the claims is relying on subscriber data from 2015.

Michael Coyle, a solicitor advocate at Lawdit Solicitors who specialises in intellectual property law, said he had been approached by at least 60 people who had received largely identical letters accusing them of downloading and sharing the film.

Coyle, who is advising individuals who have received demands for money from TCYK, said that most people have denied pirating the film.

He criticised Sky for not having responded more robustly to TCYK’s case. “They should be fighting tooth and nail not to have this information released,” he said.

In March, the TorrentFreak blog reported that Sky had sent letters to those customers whose details had been released to TCYK, warning: “It is likely that TCYK LLC will contact you directly and may ask you to pay compensation,” and directing them to Citizens Advice for further help.

In the letter sent to Sky customers, TCYK says that it hired a “forensic computer analyst” to identify IP addresses of computers that were making the film available online.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Robert Redford film was produced by Voltage Pictures, the company behind The Hurt Locker, pictured, which has also been associated with letter campaigns for alleged piracy. Photograph: Reuters

“We showed this evidence to your internet service provider [BSkyB] who would not supply us with the information without a court order,” the firm writes. “We therefore made an application to court asking for an order against BSkyB that they disclose the names and addresses associated with the IP address on the date and at the time in question.”

In a section of the letter headlined “Proposed Settlement”, TCYK writes: “We will propose an appropriate figure to you … after we have received your response to this letter and carefully considered its contents.”

The letter makes third-person references to an unidentified “claimant” who is the owner of the film’s copyright and said to be “very concerned at the illicit distribution of films over the internet”. A call to the phone number on the letter was answered by a paralegal based in Arizona, who said that TCYK was both the copyright owner and the claimant. The paralegal declined to state how many letters had been issued and said further queries should be directed to the company’s email address.

The Company You Keep is a political thriller set in the 1960s and also starred Julie Christie, Susan Sarandon and Shia LaBeouf. In its review, the New York Times rued that “this earnest, well-intentioned movie elicits frustration that its story had to be packaged as a conventional, not very suspenseful fugitive thriller with a bogus Hollywood ending.”

The 2012 film was produced by Voltage Pictures, the company behind The Hurt Locker and Dallas Buyers Club. Both films have also previously been associated with letter campaigns demanding restitution for alleged piracy.

Nicolas Chartier, the president of Voltage Pictures, told the Hollywood Reporter this year that he had issued 20,000 lawsuits against individuals accused of pirating the Hurt Locker in order to “make a statement”.



“The day after we announced 20,000 lawsuits, the internet downloads of Hurt Locker went down about 40%,” he said. “So, you know, you frighten people and then they stop.”

Previous speculative invoicing cases have been described by Citizens Advice as being “based on a number of misleading claims”, and one previous case resulted in the lawyer behind a wave of letters being suspended from the profession for two years.

In a statement, Sky said: “TCYK LLC successfully applied for a court order against Sky. This means that we were required, by law, to supply TCYK LLC with the details of account holders that matched the list of IP addresses that they had identified.

“We have written to all affected customers advising them carefully to read the letter from TCYK LLC and if they want any further help to contact the Citizens Advice Bureau.”