The 28 suits filed last week, part of 458 suits filed throughout Europe, represent the first legal actions targeting file-sharers that have been taken by the UK music industry.
The cases, a combination of criminal and civil suits, target major "uploaders" – those people charged with putting hundreds of copyrighted songs on to internet file-sharing networks and offering them to, potentially, millions of people worldwide without permission from the copyright owners.
But the industry does not yet know who the individuals are – only their ISPs – and last week applied to the High Court in London for Orders of Disclosure. These, which were yesterday granted by Mr Justice Blackburne, require the relevant ISPs to reveal their users' identities.
"On the face of it this appears to be a powerful case of copyright infringement," Justice Blackburne is reported to have said.
ISPs now have 14 days in which to provide the BPI with the names and addresses of the 28 individuals targeted by the suits. The trade group is then likely to contact the file-sharers with a view to settling the actions, but will proceed with the suits if necessary.
"We are pleased that the court has granted the order that we were seeking," said BPI general counsel Geoff Taylor, according to the Guardian newspaper. "We have said consistently that unauthorised file-sharing is illegal, and we will not hesitate to take action against those who infringe our members' rights."
