UK music to 'sue online pirates'

[petpiranha]

UK music to 'sue online pirates'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...ic/3722428.stm

The British music industry is set to announce its first wave of legal action against internet users who download music illegally.
The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is to announce it is targeting "major uploaders" - those who make music available to share free with others.

Music file-sharers have been blamed for a decline in world-wide CD sales.

The BPI's actions follow that of its US counterpart which is already suing those it calls the worst offenders.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) began issuing lawsuits seeking compensation from alleged downloaders in 2003.

However, the legal action comes as the UK music industry reports rising sales of both CDs and singles.

The BPI and the International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI) is joining forces to announce new measures to tackle the problem in the UK.

Warning messages

The BPI warned in March it would take legal action against users of peer-to-peer music services, which allow people to swap tracks online.

It has since sent thousands of internet messages to desktops warning people the song-swapping sites they were using were being watched.

The BPI believes a hardcore 15% of file-sharers are responsible for 75% of all illegal music downloading.

The popularity of music downloading largely caught the music industry by surprise, meaning it has been playing catch-up in the fight to tackle it.

But now there are many legal download sites, where users pay for the music and the money goes back to the recording artists.


But media analyst Simon Dyson, of the Informa Group, said it could be difficult to change the habits of a whole generation.

"There are some kids that have probably never bought a CD," he told BBC Breakfast.

"They started downloading when they were 11 or 12 and they have never bought a CD. It's going to be a problem for the BPI to turn those around because it's obviously not something they have done before so getting them into buying CDs is going to be difficult."

"But there's no excuse for downloading music illegally," he added.

BBC correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones said critics would ask whether firms should be suing their customers.

The BPI says single sales have more than halved in the UK since 1999, when downloading took off - despite research suggesting it has a minimal effect on sales.

Q&A: Will I be sued for music-swapping?
=============================

I have downloaded music over the internet. Can I be sued?

Not if you have downloaded songs that have been put online with the approval of record labels and artists - which usually involves paying for royalties. Sanctioned services include Apple's iTunes and Napster as well as MyCokeMusic, Wippit HMV and Virgin.

If you download unapproved tracks from unsanctioned sites - whether it is one song or a million - you are infringing copyright and you run the risk of being sued.


Could I be sued for swapping just a few songs?

Theoretically, you could. But the BPI says the problem stems from a small hardcore of "serial uploaders" who offer hundreds or thousands of music files over the internet.

The RIAA took action against a college student in Michigan who ran a network offering more than 650,000 files - the equivalent of more than 43,000 albums. They have chased other users who have again uploaded thousands of files.

The BPI says 15% of file-sharers are responsible for 75% of all songs swapped illegally.


Can children be sued for uploading or downloading songs?

The BPI has not said yet if children will be targeted.

Why are record companies so worried?

Music sales are falling, with global annual record sales down from $40bn (£22bn) to $30bn (£17bn) over the past four years.

The music industry, which has suffered massive redundancies and restructuring in the last decade, says the swapping of music files over the internet is one of the major parts of music piracy. It has sued online song-swapping services like Napster, and is in the process of suing Kazaa.

However, CD sales in the UK are rising - up fractionally on last year.

Why is the BPI taking action now?

In 2003 the BPI said suing individual users would be a "last resort".

But recent research indicates that eight million people in the UK claim to be downloading music, 92% of them using illegal sites.

Why are they chasing individual users?

The music industry has had mixed fortunes in its court actions against the companies that support file-swapping on the internet. Some have been successful - like the action which forced Napster to close - and some have not.

Last year a US judge ruled that two file-swapping networks, Grokster and Morpheus, were not responsible for what was traded on their systems.

However, the RIAA was successful in getting telecommunications giant Verizon to hand over details of customers who swap files. This has allowed them to begin the process of gathering evidence against individuals.

Are other music industry groups going to take similar action?

Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Spain and Italy have already taken similar action, says the International Federation for the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). German police impounded computer equipment in 2003 in the town of Furth that had been used to upload up to one million files. In Italy at least 75 actions have been taken.


Will legitimate online services ever rival the peer-to-peer sites?

More than three million downloads have been sold in the UK so far this year - but that figure remains a small fraction of the total number of illegal songs traded online.

[Pete!]

Move this to the correct forum.

[petpiranha]

I was kinda hoping it could stay in my forum seeing as I posted it and I'm moderating here

[Pete!]

I think it's something worth discussing, and should be in one of the main forums

People might be reluctant to check other band's forum and so probably wont see this post.

[poprock]

Fans of MTS who don't check the rest of AltNation may miss it if it were to be moved.

Would you like me to put a redirect in general chat, Pete? Would that solve the issue for you?

[Pete!]

Fire in, boss-man.

[poprock]

Done. Now then... what did you have to add - since you wanted this to be up for discussion?

[Pete!]

I don't like your tone, but I will add my opinion.

Is this for real or intending just to scare people into not downloading, I wonder.

This obviously means less Brittish people will be sharing which obviously means less people to download from. Not a massive problem for me as I've all but quit downloading music, with the exception of rare + remixes (even than I barely bother, all about the wrestling downloads ATM...)

Now what do you have to add, grand master?

[poprock]

Well, I'm wondering about this part; "Why are they chasing individual users?"

I'd guess it's to try and make a deterrent. They want to scare the public into not file-sharing.

Scaring people is not a positive solution to anything - it just pisses them off and increases anti-authority feeling.

There's got to be a better way.

I'm convinced the way forward for the music industry is to make paid downloads (or legitimate free downloads, or something) more attractive then file-sharing. Offer a greater selection, make it easier to use, make it more reliable (you know, actually getting the song you thought you were getting, at a high quality level), make sure the artist gets cash out of it, and so on.

[Pete!]

I definately agree about making it a more attractive alternative to free software, and I don't mean giving it a fancy corporate name (Coka, iTunes etc), I don't see the point in paying monthly or individual fees for songs when I can get the same quality of stuff for no charge.

[petpiranha]

More info:
=======

Hundreds of new legal actions brought against uploaders in 6 countries in Europe

London, October 7, 2004 - The music industry today announced a major escalation of its campaign against illegal file-sharing, unveiling 459 legal actions against music “uploaders” and for the first time targeting Europe’s two largest music markets, the UK and France.

Announcing the actions on behalf of the recording industry worldwide, IFPI warned that the rolling campaign will be further stepped up and extended into new countries in the coming months. It called on music fans to buy their music online legitimately, rather than risk the legal consequences of illegal file-sharing. There are now over 100 legal online music sites in Europe offering a total of over one million music tracks.

Today’s action is the largest single wave of lawsuits to be announced outside the USA since the industry in Europe started bringing litigation against illegal file-sharing in March 2004. It brings the total number of cases so far launched in Europe to more than 650 in six countries.

Besides the UK and France, new actions are being brought today in Italy, Denmark and Germany, and the campaign is also extending for the first time to Austria.

The cases, a combination of criminal and civil suits, are aimed at “uploaders” – people charged with putting hundreds of copyrighted songs on to internet file-sharing networks and offering them to thousands or millions of people world-wide without permission from the copyright owners. The defendants are likely to face compensation payments averaging several thousand euros.

In countries where cases have already been settled, identified uploaders are already paying compensation. As a result of actions brought in March, so far more than 80 people in Germany and Denmark have handed over individual payments of up to 13,000 euros.

All major unauthorised file-sharing networks targeted
Uploaders on all major unauthorized file-sharing services are covered by today’s actions. The largest such service is KaZaA, which, since the start of industry litigation, has already seen its user numbers fall. There are 2.4 million simultaneous users on KaZaA, 20% less than there were in January.

Others targetted in the present actions include users of the EDonkey/eMule, Gnutella, WinMx, OpenNap and DirectConnect services. This is a warning that no illegal uploaders are immune from legal action, whichever service they are using.

The legal charges

The lawsuits are brought by IFPI-affiliated industry associations on behalf of record companies in each of the six countries. Individuals are charged with acting illegally by making copyrighted music available on the internet without the permission of the copyright holder – this is against the law throughout Europe and internationally.

A total of 100 cases are being launched in Austria, 174 in Denmark, 50 in France, 100 in Germany, 7 in Italy and 28 in the UK. In March a first wave of 247 cases was launched in Europe and Canada. In the US over 5,700 actions have been brought in the last year.

IFPI Chairman and CEO Jay Berman said: “We are taking this action as a last resort and we are doing it after a very long public awareness campaign. We have spent more than a year discussing the damage illegal file-sharing is doing to the music industry, including countless warnings of the legal consequences. We have been to the networks to ask them to stop the illegal activity taking place on their services, and we have gone straight to the illegal file-sharers with millions of instant messages.

“Now, finally, we are at the point where the law has to be enforced. There is quite simply no longer any excuse for illegally file-sharing. People who love music should buy it online and not swap files illegally. If they do continue to engage in illegal music file-sharing they are in effect engaged in copyright theft, and may therefore have to face the legal consequences”.

Breakdown of the cases

· United Kingdom: The UK record industry confirmed that is it launching a rolling programme of legal actions against major alleged illegal file-sharers for the first time. The BPI is launching court cases against 28 individuals. The BPI alleges that they were engaged in copying and making available large numbers of music tracks on the internet in breach of copyright. They will face civil action for an injunction and damages.

· France: Criminal complaints and civil court cases are being filed against 50 major uploaders of music in France, as the first legal actions in an ongoing campaign to combat illegal file sharing. French anti-piracy organisation SCPP is pursuing court proceedings that allow fines and other criminal sanctions, or civil remedies including termination of the internet account of an infringer.

· Austria: IFPI Austria announced that it will be filing 100 criminal and civil cases against people found to have been offering large numbers of music files on peer-to-peer file sharing services without authorisation. Austrian proceedings permit a range of remedies and penalties, including criminal raids and fines, as well as civil compensation and injunctions.

· Denmark: IFPI Denmark is sending civil demand letters to approximately 174 more alleged illegal music file-sharers, bringing the total number of such legal claims launched in Denmark to nearly 300. So far 67 individuals in Denmark (representing approximately 40% of those targeted in the previous wave) have already either paid or agreed to pay compensation averaging a few thousand euros each - one as high as €13,000.

· Germany: IFPI Germany has filed 100 additional criminal complaints against individuals alleged to be engaged in illegal file sharing of music. This brings to 168 the number of such cases launched. To date, 10 of the earlier defendants have been raided, 5 have had criminal judgments or fines imposed on them, and 16 have made civil settlement payments from 2.000 to 10.000 euros (averaging 4,000 Euros).

· Italy: Police have raided 7 more individuals on suspicion of copyright infringement in connection with large-scale file sharing of music, with more actions expected in the coming weeks. This follows similar criminal cases brought against 30 individuals in March this year, which are still pending before the courts. Individuals found guilty are subject to fines expected in the range of 5,000 to 25,000 Euros with additional civil compensation possible.

· United States: Since September 2003, the US recording industry has brought copyright infringement lawsuits against over 5,700 alleged illegal file sharers. There have been hundreds of settlements to date, averaging several thousand US dollars each.

IFPI is also today publishing a number of Fact Sheets on the impact of illegal file-sharing on music sales; the impact of the industry’s litigation programme to date; the advance of the legitimate online music market; and the information campaigns conducted by the recording industry.

Highlights include:

Research findings on the impact of illegal file-sharing

IFPI has compiled a comprehensive collection of third party research which proves overwhelmingly that illegal file-sharing has contributed to the decline in global music sales - down US$6 billion in the last five years. All reputable peer-commended studies conclude that illegal song-swapping depresses music sales (see attached Fact Sheet: “Internet Piracy: The Facts” also available on www.ifpi.org)

Latest figures on legitimate online services

In the last year record companies have made a vast bulk of their repertoire available online, and there are now over 100 legal music online sites in Europe compared to only 20 one year ago. Between 450,000 and 1 million songs are available in different European countries, and 4 million Europeans have already paid for online music (according to Forrester Research, August 2004) (see attached Fact Sheet: The Legitimate Online Music Market also available on www.ifpi.org)

[poprock]

Interesting reading.

So because this is a recording industry initiative, they really are only going after folk sharing music, not other files.

Originally Posted by Pete

I don't see the point in paying monthly or individual fees for songs when I can get the same quality of stuff for no charge.

Having morals, I think is the main reason.

If I enjoy a band's music, I want them to get something for it.

I realise that through the major label system, they ain't getting much from me buying a CD... but it's not just the artist that deserves to get paid. The sleeve designer, the guys in the manufacturing plant who pack the cases, the PR girl who pushes the band to the press... there's a whole lot of people doing their best to make a living out there, who are reliant on music being paid for.

[Pete!]

Immortal Technique here.

I know what yer saying, it isn't fair on anyone downloading an artists music via p2p (unless the artist wants it...) but I'm just echoing the opinions and reasons why people will use Soulseek over Napster.

You know this of course.

[poprock]

Of course.

I know you're a good person and all that, but I like to remind folk every now and again that most of the arguments in favour of file-sharing boil down to the user being selfish, at the end of the day.

[Pete!]

I'm sure we're all glad you're here to feed us those morals.