My initial letter of response

                                                                                                                          Paul <address> Dublin 7

Wednesday 17 October 2018

Dear Sir/Madam/To whom it may concern,

I am writing in response to your letter dated 3 October conveying an IRMA allegation of copyright infringement using my IP Address.

First of all I want to point out that your database records even have my name wrong. My middle initial is not P, it is M for Michael. My full legal name is Paul Michael Bowman.

But my name is not the only thing you have wrong in your database. Most importantly the allegation your letter conveyed, namely that on 15/09/20018 01:19:53 a digital copy of a copyrighted album (London Grammar, 'Truth is a Beautiful Thing') was being downloaded via the BitTorrent protocol via my internet connection, is entirely false.

I am the sole tenant at the account address and the sole user of the internet service provided under this account. I also do not have any BitTorrent client installed on either of my work or home laptops and am not in the habit of downloading any media, whether covered by copyright or not, via this protocol.

Your letter asserts that on the date and time in question "my" IP address was 109.225.225.25. However you do not mention the MAC address of the machine being used. Which you should have, if you have complete logs of the internet usage from my account. Without the MAC address, there is no guarantee that the IP address quoted was not being spoofed, as any network engineer will tell you.

This letter is to notify you that I challenge the false allegation of law-breaking you have made against me, and will be seeking legal advice for avenues for pursuing recourse for the alarm and upset caused to me by your impugning my reputation in this fashion.

Further, I should say that I am by profession a Database Administrator and I have spent a good deal of time in the last year on projects with my client preparing for compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation. I trust you have equally invested in bringing your organisation to full GDPR-compliance because I intend to exercise my consumer rights under that regulation to the fullest extent.

Your personal data on me is manifestly incorrect (e.g. you even have my name wrong).

In addition, that incorrect data - IP logs specifically - may or may not have been passed on to a third party, to whit IRMA, without informing me or gaining my express permission. Secondly that that information may be the basis of this false accusation of infringement of statute against myself. I will be seeking legal advice in relation to this injury.

According to my rights under the GDPR, I demand to see a full copy of all the data you hold in relation to me, internet logs included, so I can challenge any further incorrect information you have recorded against me.

As I use this internet service for work as well as personal use, any interruption to service not subject to proper legal sanction will be passed on to the legal departments of said client institutions for consideration for damages, should such interruption incur any costs to them.

I await your prompt response.

Yours sincerely,

Paul M Bowman