The British music industry is following its US
counterparts' example in taking a hard line against individuals
illegally sharing music online.
The British Phonographic Industry said that file sharers could
face court action if they continue with their activities, pointing
out that illegal file sharing is outlawed under the 1988 Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act.
The announcement comes just days after the Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA) said that it had fired off its third
round of more than 500 lawsuits against individual file swappers
believed to be trading music online illegally.
Although the BPI did not say whether it would launch a legal
campaign similar to the "John Doe" suits the RIAA has filed in the
US, it did say that violators "risk court action".
So far this year, the RIAA has filed more than 1,500 lawsuits
against individuals identified only by their IP addresses for
allegedly trading copyright music. The users' ISPs were then
subpoenaed to reveal the names of the individuals.
The group launched an "instant message" campaign to warn file
sharers of the action they face if they do not disable file sharing
software on their computers.
BPI spokesman Matt Phillips said the group is using a software
application, or bot, that trawls the net looking for files that are
being made available on users' computers illegally. If users are
major "uploaders", the application will send them an instant
message warning that they could be violating the law.
Like the RIAA, the BPI's antipiracy campaign targets users of
P2P networks such as Kazaa, which allow users to search the web for
music files and download them onto their computer. While
downloading files is not necessarily illegal, sharing those files
with others by uploading them to other users is.
"There is a common misperception that even if you buy music
online, it is yours. But if you offer to distribute that music, it
is against the law," he said.
The bot employed by BPI identifies users by their IP addresses
and that information could, theoretically, be used as evidence in
future lawsuits.
"At this stage we haven't made any decisions on legal action but
we are saying to those who upload a massive amount of files that
what they are doing is illegal," he said. "Those people are very
easy to find."
According to BPI's latest research, it is in the interest of the
record companies to find these infringers. Some eight million
people in the UK download music and 92% use illegal sites.
There are no excuses for this illegal activity, because there
are hundreds of thousands of tracks available from legal internet
services in the UK, the BPI added.
Scarlet Pruitt writes for IDG News Service