By Jo Best, 2 August 2005 14:05
NEWS Five alleged file-sharers will now face record companies in court after failing to reach a settlement over accusations of illegal uploading.
The three men and two women are accused of uploading nearly 9,000 tracks between them to file-sharing networks and have been unable to settle with music industry trade body the BPI (British Phonographic Industry). The BPI has now filed civil proceedings against the five individuals and will be seeing them in court.
The BPI has said it will be suing the individuals for costs and compensation for the income they claim has been lost to the music industry as a result of the uploaders' actions.
The BPI has sought settlements with more than 90 alleged uploaders, more than 60 of whom have opted to pay compensation averaging thousands of pounds to the trade body.
International record industry organisation the IFPI reported recently that the number of tracks made available for upload illegally has grown by three per cent in the first half of this year.
Legal music, however, has grown by more than 300 per cent in the four main music markets over the same period.
A spokesman for the BPI said the organisation is pleased with how the campaign of pursuing illegal uploaders is going: "We believe the campaign is working and the results are encouraging. We can't just sit back and ignore the problem."
Comments
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1. Mr T
The music is played on the radio, TV etc and the record companies are making good profits. All this cribbing about file sharing is quite irrelevant.
If I like a track/album I would buy it unless I didn’t have enough money then I wouldn't.
I object to buying an album to find that the only track I like is the one I have heard on the radio and most of the other tracks I will never play.
The record companies should look at the P2P sharing as a form of promotion rather than piracy and accept the benefits of the www.
It has already seen 300% uptake of legitimate sales of downloadable music increase with the www.
Just a note to up-loaders, if you do actually own the CD/Album you can actually share it with others. So you can share what you own and remove those that you don’t own from your shared folders.
2. Dick Jaws Music
P2P and 'Free' tracks offered as downloads works.
I shout it out to the record companies
I have bought music after the effective 'Try Before You Buy' nature of file shares and or free Mp3 downloads.
Yes I did download a copy of a Goldfrapp cd 'Black Cherry' and liked it so I bought it...... legitimate like!
I downloaded a free MP3 posted by little known songster Kingbathmat (yep who?) and subsequently bought the cd
Pleased to say no big record company is behind this guy and he can have my money with pleasure...... after all the first time I heard of him it was a 'free' download
ICP..... yep downloaded that from Napster in the evil file share days..... tell the record industry police....... erm subsequently decided I liked it and went down to the local HMV and bought a copy
My list is endless............ I also have bought a huge amount of LP's, Tapes, DVD's and cd's over the years as I'm a music fan...... but I can't say that the the music industry always gets it...... free promotion of their acts that is?
free tracks are the way to get your unknown band or even better known bands a bigger stage to play on and often as not many of us will go out and purchase the real item after all?
You want a fan base........ Free music is the way dudes!