BPI To Take action against Music Uploaders

[crankykick]

Source

Music fans who download their favourite tracks on the internet for free are facing the threat of legal action.

The music industry says illegal file-sharing websites have hit their profits hard and they have no choice.The record business says it has experienced a 22% drop in sales worldwide, and a 50% dive in the sale of UK singles.

The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is to pursue legal action against people who make their music collection available on the internet, illegally, for other web users to share.

It wants to target a hardcore 15% responsible for 75% of all illegal file-sharing on the internet.

Lawyers for the phonographic industry say there is no excuse for downloading tracks illegally - as more than two-and-a-quarter-million have been bought legally on quality music sites set up by Napster and Apple.

The move, targeting sites like Grokster and Kazaa, comes after court action in the US resulted in a recovery in the record industry there.

Last year, a 12-year-old schoolgirl from New York paid £13,000 as an out-of-court settlement. She had been one of 261 Americans sued for downloading songs.

The BPI announced in March that it planned to take action and has since sent hundreds of thousands of instant internet messages to people, warning file-sharers they were being watched.

But the messages have not deterred the most prolific offenders, the BPI says.