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Australian ISP sued by music giants over piracy


The Australian music industry is suing one of the country's oldest and largest ISPs for profiting from the increased bandwidth used by customers who unlawfully download music files. According to ZDNet Australia, it is the first case of its kind in the world.

ComCen Internet Services, a trading name of E-talk Communications, has been in the ISP market since 1995 and is now being sued in Sydney by Universal Music Australia, EMI Music Australia, Sony Music Entertainment (Australia), Warner Music Australia, BMG Australia and Festival Records, according to ZDNet's report.

Michael Speck, manager of Australia's Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI), told ZD Net Australia that this is the first time the industry has accused an ISP of being directly involved in piracy by allowing its infrastructure to be used for file-trading activities.

Speck is also quoted by Australian IT, saying: "It is estimated that up to 20 per cent of the ISP revenue in Australia is generated by traffic in illegal sound recordings."

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