Many of those facing legal action are parents of
children who have illegally shared thousands of music files on P2P
networks. The industry warns parents to check what their children
are doing online as they could face financial penalties if their
children access illegal material.
According to industry group the International Federation for the
Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the actions are a combination of
criminal and civil suits, and are aimed at 'uploaders' – people who
have put hundreds or thousands of copyrighted songs onto internet
file-sharing networks and offered them to people worldwide without
permission from the copyright owners.
Defendants are likely to face compensation payments averaging
several thousand euros, warns the IFPI.
The actions target users of all the major unauthorised P2P
networks, including FastTrack (Kazaa), Gnutella (BearShare),
eDonkey, DirectConnect, BitTorrent, Limewire, WinMX, and
SoulSeek.
They are being launched in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany,
Hong Kong SAR, Iceland, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and, for the
first time, in Portugal. According to the IFPI, sales of physical
music in Portugal have slumped by 40% in the last four years,
mostly because of file-sharing.
Today's move comes after a round of court judgments, from
Denmark to the UK, confirming that unauthorised file-sharers are
breaking the law and are liable to pay compensation.
In Denmark, a Supreme Court judgment last month, based on the
European Copyright Directive, stated that ISPs can be obliged to
terminate the connections of customers engaged in internet piracy.
That ruling follows more than 130 French injunctions that led to
internet users who were illegally file-sharing being disconnected
by their ISPs.
In January, a UK court found two British men liable for unlawful
file-sharing and ordered them to pay thousands of pounds in
damages. According to trade group the British Phonographic Industry
(BPI), a further two court cases have now been ruled in the BPI's
favour, with Judge Justice Richards awarding default judgements
against a further two file-sharers last month.
The pair have been ordered to make interim payments of
£2,500.
Meanwhile, the latest consumer research, published by IFPI and
Jupiter and other independent researchers, suggests that the battle
against illegal file-sharing is making progress.
It reveals that more than a third of illegal file-sharers (35%)
in France, Germany, Spain, Sweden and the UK have stopped or cut
back on such activity – while 14% increased their activity. That
means that a net three million people are cutting back or stopping
their illegal file-sharing, says the IFPI.
Of those people who are stopping or cutting back, many cited the
legal consequences of their actions as a major worry. This fear was
common across most of Europe: France (35%), Germany (27%), Sweden
(25%) and the UK (20%).
The other major reason cited by illegal file-sharers for cutting
back or stopping their activities was the risk of contracting
computer viruses, which was mentioned by 29% of British, 18% of
Swedish, 16% of German and 15% of French file-sharers.
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