Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 5627451

Techdirt's Mike Masnick makes a compelling case for the idea that a UK law firm (named in his post) is focused more on extorting money from people than on protecting copyrights - and is actually uploading content intentionally in order to trap downloaders.

In an earlier post, Masnick noted, "It was quite clear from the beginning that this never had anything to do with copyright. It was just a straight up shakedown. The firm would send threatening letters claiming that it had evidence (even if it did not) and then demand a settlement fee be paid to avoid an actual lawsuit."

Now, Masnick links to a post by enigmax at TorrentFreak which notes, Masnick writes, that "the copyright holder may be contracting with a company to purposely [spread] the content to file sharing networks for the purpose of making it easier to find people to threaten with pre-settlement letters..."

To help users avoid contact with these folks, the TorrentFreak post helpfully links to a list of affected titles.

More here from Amused Cynicism.