Court orders naming of another 33 illegal filesharers as record industry counts £650m cost of internet piracy : 19:4:2005

> Court orders ISPs to name more UK filesharers

> Uploaders face substantial claims for compensation and costs

> New survey shows the £650m cost of illegal downloading

> Message getting through as 85% of non-downloaders rule out filesharing illegally

Judge orders naming of 33 uploaders

UK record companies’ trade association the BPI was today granted an order by the High Court requiring five internet service providers to disclose the identities of 33 more individuals alleged to have illegally distributed music files on peer-to-peer filesharing networks.

The individuals concerned had uploaded more than 72,000 music files to the internet.

The ISPs concerned now have a fortnight to give the BPI the identities of the filesharers which brings the number of people in the UK to face legal action for illegal filesharing up to 90. They will face claims for compensation and the legal costs in pursuing them.

BPI General Counsel Geoff Taylor said: “This court order should remind every user of a peer-to-peer filesharing service in Britain that they are not anonymous. These 33 people will now face paying thousands of pounds in compensation.  We are continuing to collect evidence every day against people who are still uploading music illegally, despite all the warnings we have given. If you want to avoid the risk of court action, stop filesharing and buy music legally”.

Filesharers face substantial bills

The BPI has also revealed further details of the 31 people identified in March in its last round of legal cases. Around a third of the internet account holders now facing legal action are thought to be parents whose accounts have been used to upload music illegally by their children.

As with the first round of 26 cases settled in March, these 31  illegal filesharers hail from the length and breadth of the UK – including two filesharers from Northern Ireland, three from Scotland and two from Wales.

Eleven of the 31 are from London and the South East. Another filesharer hails from Norfolk while five are from the West Country. Two of the filesharers live in the Midlands, with a further five from the Yorkshire and the North West.

BPI General Counsel Geoff Taylor said: “Parents may teach their children that it’s good to share. But kids using these so-called “filesharing” services are not “sharing”, they are distributing music all over the world. Unless they have permission from the record company concerned, this is against the law and could end up costing a family thousands.”

“The risks of allowing children unsupervised access to the internet are well-known. To that long list should now be added the very real possibility of legal action if music is uploaded to the internet illegally. The safest thing that parents can do is check their computer regularly and disable any filesharing software. If children want to buy music online, there are plenty of legal music stores that are safe to use”.

Survey shows the £650m cost of illegal downloading

Meanwhile new figures released today by the BPI have for the first time shown the full extent of the damage that illegal filesharing is doing to the UK recording industry.

A two-year study, carried out by research group TNS, analyses the effect that illegal filesharing has had upon consumer spending in the UK. It shows that over the past two years downloaders have spent a massive £654 million less on recorded music.

In 2004 they spent less than half as much on recorded music as would have been expected if they were non-downloaders.

While 2004 saw the arrival of numerous digital music services, the UK’s first Official Download Chart and a massive increase in the numbers of people buying music online legally, this has not been enough to counteract the declining spend of illegal filesharers.

TNS estimate that downloaders’ spend on recorded music was around £730 million in 2002. Had their habits reflected overall market trends, spending would have increased to £767m in 2003 and declined slightly to £745m in 2004.

However, downloaders’ spend actually declined by 33% over 2003 and a further 24.5% in 2004 – a spending shortfall of £654m over two years.

Downloaders’ Spend (£m)

Matched to market trends

2002 – £730m | 2003 -£767 | 2004 -£745 | Total - £1,512m

Actual Spend

2002 -£730 | 2003 - £489 | 2004 - £369 | Total - £858m

Loss to industry

2003 - £278m | 2004 - £376m | Total - £654m

Source: TNS

BPI Chairman Peter Jamieson said: “Illegal filesharing has claimed hundreds of millions of pounds in lost revenue, much of which would have been invested in new British music. Although the legal downloads business is growing at an impressive rate – it does not even begin to offset the damage done by illegal filesharing.”

85% rule out filesharing

One cause for optimism in the survey is evidence that the BPI’s high-profile campaign against illegal filesharing is beginning to have an effect.

TNS data shows that 18% of the UK population aged 12-74 are downloading music from the internet, most doing so illegally from filesharing networks.

Of those not downloading, a massive 84.3% said they “would not consider” filesharing illegally.

An encouraging 15% of illegal downloaders said they will start to pay for downloads, but 34% are undecided and a significant 51% said they will continue to fileshare.

BPI Chairman Peter Jamieson said, “Our three rounds of legal action against significant uploaders of music are clearly having an effect. But there is a long, long way to go. We never wanted to have to sue members of the public, but no one should be in any doubt that we are serious about this campaign. We will do what it takes.”

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Editors’ notes

Illegal filesharing and the industry response

> Filesharing refers to the act of computer users sharing files over the internet using so called “peer-to-peer filesharing” software, such as KaZaA, Grokster, eDonkey, Bearshare, and DirectConnect.

> It involves the act of downloading (retrieving a file from another user’s PC), and the act of uploading (making files available for others to download from your own PC).

> The filesharing of copyright material, which makes up an estimated 90% of all shared files, is illegal unless each copyright owner has given permission.

> Illegal music downloading has repeatedly been demonstrated to be a major factor in the global decline in recorded music sales. See http://www.bpi.co.uk/piracy/content_file_79.shtml for more information.

> The recording industry has invested heavily in making music available to legal download services, and there are now more than 30 high profile websites offering UK internet users in excess of 1 million tracks to download legally and to date more than 10 million tracks have been bought legally in the UK. Just last week sales of legal downloads began to count towards the Official UK Singles Chart.

> Around 870 million music songs are being illegally uploaded to the internet at any one time. The global recording industry has been engaged in a long-term campaign to discourage illegal uploading.

> 10,000 ‘major uploaders’ across the globe have so far faced legal action. Most cases have been in the US, and today’s announcement brings the total in the UK to 90.

Research Methodology

> TNS has an established panel of 10,000 individuals aged 12-74 in 10,000 homes in the UK.  This panel mirrors the UK population (excluding Northern Ireland), both demographically and regionally.

> Panel members log the details of all the music (as well as other items) they have bought.

> TNS polls the panel members every two weeks and interviewers enter the information from their purchasing log into their computer systems to produce periodic reports on music purchasing habits.

> A paper questionnaire was sent to 7,500 members of the TNS AVT (Audio Visual Trak) panel members in November 2004.

> The sample was biased towards under 35 year olds and was then weighted back up to be demographically representative of the national population.

> The achieved response rate was 46%, giving a total sample of 3,432 respondents. 1,813 respondents in 2004 also responded to the 2003 questionnaire.

> Questionnaire responses can then be cross-analysed with the AVT purchasing data so it therefore possible to track actual purchasing behaviour of respondents rather than relying on memory recall.

Also on the BPI website: