BPI rejects misleading statements from National Consumer Council : 5:10:2005

> BPI legal cases are civil NOT criminal

> Illegal filesharing is BAD for consumers

>NCC should support consumer information campaign     

UK record companies trade association the BPI has rejected claims made today by the National Consumer Council that the recording industry is attempting to "criminalise" consumers.

BPI chairman Peter Jamieson said, "The NCC's comments are misleading. First, the BPI has not initiated any criminal actions. Any actions we have initiated have been civil cases. Second, we are not taking action against consumers. We are pursuing people who are taking music without permission and infringing the rights we have under the law.

"When people cross the line from being paying customers to taking music without permission, they can no longer be regarded as consumers - they are law breakers.

"Independent research demonstrates that illegal filesharing has cost the record industry £650 million in lost sales in the past two years alone, which means inevitably means there is less money available to invest in new British music. Illegal filesharing is in a very real sense bad for the consumer as well as for the music industry.

"We make no apologies for enforcing the rights we have been given in law. But we have focused our attentions on some of the worst offenders - those people making available hundreds and often thousands of tracks available for others to download. 

"More than 60 people in the UK have accepted that they were distributing music illegally on the internet and paid fines of up to £6,500 to avoid civil lawsuits. Our campaign of education and awareness has included distributing hundreds of thousands of instant messages and tens of thousands of leaflets in public buildings. The record industry has even developed free software to help consumers stay legal.

"As a body representing consumers, we hope that the NCC share our view that consumers need to understand how to avoid breaking the law whilst using the internet. Although the NCC have offered no support so far for our two-year consumer campaign, the door is always open and we would welcome any support they can offer."

Click here to find out more about the BPI campaign against illegal filesharing.