 |
 BPI ups the pressure on internet music pirates : 12:4:2005 BPI announces another 33 legal cases against illegal filesharers UK record companies’ trade association the BPI has announced it is taking legal action against another 33 illegal filesharers in the UK, bringing to 90 the number of people in the UK that have faced legal action since its campaign against internet filesharing began last year. The announcement coincides with the announcement by the BPI’s international counterpart the IFPI of action against 963 illegal filesharers in 11 countries. 33 more UK file-sharers face legal action The UK recording industry first announced legal action against 26 illegal filesharers in October 2004. Those cases have all now been settled, with defendants paying more than £50,000 total in compensation. The BPI further announced on March 4 that it intended pursuing proceedings against 31 more illegal filesharers. Following disclosure of their identities by internet service providers, these 31 are being written to today (April 12) with details of the BPI's legal claims against them. In addition, the BPI today says it intends proceeding against another 33 illegal filesharers and will be going to the High Court next week to seek disclosure of their identities. The 33 new cases include users of the KaZaA, DirectConnect, BearShare, SoulSeek, Grokster and Imesh peer-to-peer applications. All are alleged to have been uploading hundreds or many thousands of music files illegally. They face civil action for an injunction and damages. BPI General Counsel Geoff Taylor said, “We have warned people time and again that unauthorised filesharing is against the law. Anyone who is engaged in this activity faces having to pay thousands of pounds in compensation. It’s now easy to get music online legally. We will maintain our campaign until the message gets across.” < ENDS > Further information: Legal Music Online http://www.bpi.co.uk/businfo/content_file_296.shtml http://www.bpi.co.uk/news/press/news_content_file_909.shtml http://www.bpi.co.uk/news/legal/news_content_file_908.shtml http://www.bpi.co.uk/news/bizinfo/news_content_file_899.shtml http://www.bpi.co.uk/news/legal/news_content_file_790.shtml http://www.bpi.co.uk/news/stats/news_content_file_743.shtml http://www.bpi.co.uk/news/press/news_content_file_545.shtml http://www.bpi.co.uk/news/press/news_content_file_557.shtml Action against Illegal Filesharing http://www.bpi.co.uk/piracy/content_file_79.shtml http://www.bpi.co.uk/news/legal/news_content_file_901.shtml http://www.bpi.co.uk/news/legal/news_content_file_846.shtml | ||
|