The music
industry is to sue 28 people in
The
International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has begun legal proceedings
to identify the 28 people, along with more than 400 others across
The
file-swapping services allow people who belong to them to swap the copyrighted
music, and other files, directly between their computers.
Lawsuits
against file-sharing networks such as KaZaA and Gnutella have failed because
they have a legitimate use for trading uncopyrighted material. So the record business
is going after users - particularly those who make large numbers of files
available.
"We
are taking this action as a last resort and we are doing it after a very long
public awareness campaign," said Jay Berman, the IFPI chairman. "Now,
finally, we are at the point where the law has to be enforced. People who love
music should buy it online and not swap files illegally."
As a
precursor to action against the file-swappers themselves, the IFPI will this
week begin civil proceedings to force internet service providers to provide
details of people whose computers are presently only identifiable by an
"IP address" - a numeric internet identifier unique to the offending
machine.With 8.3 million people going online at any one time to access 700 million
files - representing the total number of downloads available to sharers - the
scale of illegal file-sharing dwarfs that of legal download sites such as
Apple's iTunes Music Store and Napster which see about a million tracks
downloaded per month from a catalogue of a million songs
The IFPI
said yesterday that in a recent survey, 36 per cent of users of file-sharing
networks said they bought less music as a result. However, that leaves
two-thirds who either buy the same amount or more.
Other
research has found no link between falling sales and file-sharing, and
suggested falling sales were due to economic conditions, fewer ,new releases
and physical piracy.
Sales of
recorded music around the world have risen recently without any noticeable
change in the amount of file-sharing going on. The IFPI said yesterday that the
number of files offered online had fallen from a billion in June 2003 to 700
million in June 2004.
Criminal
and civil court cases are being filed against 50 alleged uploaders in
Similar
legal action in the
THE TOP TEN SWAPPED SONGS
1 Usher,
My Boo
2 Ciara,
Goodies
3 Maroon
5, She Will Be Loved
4 Nelly,
My Place
5 Akin,
Locked Up
6 Lil'
Flip, Sunshine
7 Green
Day, American Idiot
8 Linkin
Park, Breaking The Habit
9 LL Cool
J, Headsprung
10 Trick
Daddy, Let's Go
For week 27 September to 4 October 2004; Source: Big
Champagne