PRESS
RELEASE
ILLEGAL
MUSIC FILE-SHARERS TARGETED BY FRESH WAVE OF LEGAL ACTION
- Nearly
2,000 cases launched in ten countries
- Finnish
carpenter, French chef and British postman among those caught
- File-sharers
face automatic disconnection after court judgement
- Parents
warned they could be liable for children’s online activities
- Three
million cut-back or stop their illegal file-sharing
London, April
4, 2006 –
Illegal music file-sharers across the world face a fresh wave of legal
actions today as the recording industry announces an escalation of its
campaign against digital music piracy. The latest actions come
with a new warning to parents to check what their children are doing
online as they could face financial penalties if their children access
illegal material.
IFPI
and its affiliate national bodies are today announcing nearly 2,000 new
legal cases against individuals uploading large amounts of copyrighted
music and are extending actions to Portugal, where the
legal market has been devastated by the impact of illegal file-sharing.
Hundreds
of people have already paid the price for illegally file-sharing
copyrighted material, with average legal settlements of €2,633.
In a
development that could be mirrored in other EU countries, thousands of
file- sharers in Denmark could now find their online
connections cut off by their Internet service providers (ISPs).
The ruling follows more than 130 injunctions that have been taken out
in France that led to internet users who were illegally file-sharing
being disconnected by their ISPs.
In Italy,
a series of raids against individual file-sharers and servers in the
past fortnight has led to the seizure of more than 70 computers in the
search for evidence. Each server had around a thousand users and
30 terabytes of shared music. The Italian authorities also found
a large amount of child pornography on one of the servers.
The
latest wave of cases, covering actions launched today or brought in
recent months, takes the total number of legal actions against
uploaders to more than 5,500 in 18 countries outside the US.
These
actions, a combination of criminal and civil suits, are aimed at
‘uploaders’ – people who have put hundreds or thousands of copyrighted
songs on to internet file-sharing networks and offered them to millions
of people worldwide without permission from the copyright owners.
The defendants are likely to face compensation payments averaging
several thousand euros.
Today’s
actions target users of all the major unauthorised p2p networks,
including FastTrack (Kazaa), Gnutella (BearShare), eDonkey,
DirectConnect, BitTorrent, Limewire, WinMX, and SoulSeek.
The
actions are being launched in Austria, Denmark, Finland,
Germany, Hong Kong SAR, Iceland, Italy, Portugal, Sweden and
Switzerland.
A Finnish carpenter, a
British postman, a Czech IT manager…
A wide
variety of people are finding themselves on the receiving end of legal
action and paying large financial penalties. They include a
Finnish carpenter, a British postman, a Czech IT manager, a German
judge, a French chef, a British local councillor and a retired German
couple. A large number of cases involve men aged between 20 and
35 and parents who have not heeded successive education and warning
campaigns about the legal risks of allowing p2p file-sharing in the
home.
A new
warning is being issued to parents reminding them that they are
responsible for what their children do on the family computer.
Many of those facing legal action are parents of children who have
illegally shared thousands of music files on p2p networks.
The
actions come after intense education campaigns by the music industry on
the issue. The ‘Young
People, Music and the Internet’ guide, published by Net
Family News and the children’s charity Childnet International, has been
translated into six languages and is available from www.pro-music.org and on
Childnet’s website www.childnet-int.org/music.
Digital
File Check is a freely-available software programme that is available
on disc or from the IFPI website – it can help remove or block any of
the unwanted file-sharing programmes commonly used to distribute
copyrighted files illegally. It can therefore help to stop
consumers becoming illegal file-sharers.
Warning to parents:
Mary
Louise Morris, head of education and awareness at international
children’s charity Childnet International says: “In our
experience parents are not aware of what their children are doing
online and don’t know how to begin to ask the right questions. On these
file-sharing sites its not only illegal activities like copyright
infringement that children might be participating in, but also viewing
highly inappropriate materials as well as compromising the security of
the home computer. Parents need to get involved with what their
children are doing online and take a more active role in guiding them
in their use of the Internet.”
Containing music piracy:
Illegal
file-sharing has a significant impact on the legitimate music markets
across the world. Today, IFPI’s UK affiliate BPI
reports losses in the UK topping £1 billion over the past three
years and still rising. Yet there is evidence the tide is
turning.
Today’s
move comes after a round of court judgements, 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
judgement last month, based on the European Copyright Directive, stated
that ISPs can be obliged to terminate the connections of customers
engaged in internet piracy.
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:
- 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 per cent increased their activity. That means that
a net three million people are cutting back or stopping their illegal
file-sharing.
- 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 per cent of British, 18 per cent of Swedish,
16 per cent of German and 15 per cent of French file-sharers.
- 11 per
cent of British downloaders have migrated from illegal to legal
services. New broadband users in the UK are far
more likely to use legal services (56%) than those who have been
downloading for more than a year (41%).
- In Germany
and the UK – Europe’s biggest music markets – the number of frequent
legal buyers now outnumbers illegal file-sharers, with five per cent
buying and four per cent using p2p networks in both countries.
- Illegal
file-sharing has dropped by 17 per cent in Sweden
between Q3 and Q4 of 2005 following legal action launched in October
2005.
Campaign Spreads
Internationally:
IFPI is
today announcing that it is bringing actions in Portugal
for the first time. Sales of physical music in Portugal have
slumped by 40 per cent in the last four years. Much of this is
accounted for by the phenomenal rise in illegal file-sharing,
especially among college students.
“This
is a significant escalation in our worldwide campaign against illegal
file-sharing,” said John Kennedy, the chairman and chief executive of
IFPI. This
campaign started in major music markets where sales were falling
sharply; now these legal actions have spread to smaller markets in
countries like Portugal where it is not an exaggeration
to say the future of the whole national market, and local artists, is
at stake.
“People
who file-share illegally often claim to be music fans but in fact they
are hurting investment in music, breaking the law and risking financial
penalties by their actions. There have now been so many campaigns
to educate people that file-sharing is wrong and illegal that there is
simply no excuse for people continue.
“There
is a very easy way for people to avoid legal action and escape the
viruses that p2p programmes often cause on your computer – the
answer is to stop using p2p networks illegally and instead download
music legally, via one of the hundreds of online sites and mobile
platforms that are now available to music fans”.
- ends -
For further information or
to arrange an interview please contact Adrian Strain or Alex Jacob of
the IFPI Communications Team on +44 (0)20 7878 7935 or at alex.jacob@ifpi.org.
Notes to Editors
·
For
details of the cases in every country, please see the IFPI Fact Sheet
“Breakdown of legal cases against illegal file-sharing” (www.ifpi.org)
·
IFPI is also today publishing a number of
other accompanying materials on www.ifpi.org:
o
Fact Sheet on the damage file-sharing does
to the music industry
o
Fact Sheet on the success of legal actions
o
Fact Sheet on the legitimate digital music
market
o
Round-up of educational programmes
o
An FAQ for journalists and an FAQ on
Copyright.
o
Quotes from spokespeople in those countries
involved in the campaign
IFPI
is the organisation that promotes the interests of the international
recording industry worldwide. Its membership comprises over 1450 major and independent companies in
more than 75 countries. It also has affiliated industry national groups
in 48 countries. IFPI’s mission is to fight music piracy; promote fair
market access and good copyright laws; help develop the legal
conditions and the technologies for the recording industry to prosper
in the digital era; and to promote the value of music.
