Music industry 'nails UK pirates'

[Kam 243]

From the BBC News website:

 

Music industry 'nails UK pirates'

 

The UK music industry has claimed victory in its first battle with illegal file-sharers after 23 people paid £50,000 to settle out of court.

 

The UK internet users, ranging from a student to a local councillor, have admitted putting out up to 9,000 songs each for other fans to download.

 

"These settlements show we can and we will enforce the law," the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) said.

 

The BPI has launched a second wave of cases, pursuing 31 more file-sharers.

 

BPI general counsel Geoff Taylor said: "We are determined to find people who illegally distribute music, whichever peer-to-peer network they use, and to make them compensate the artists and labels they are stealing from."

 

From the first wave, 17 men and six women aged between 22 and 58 have signed High Court undertakings admitting they illegally shared files and promising not to do it again, the BPI said.

 

The average compensation payment was £2,200 each, with one person paying £4,500.

 

Fifteen of the 23 used the Kazaa peer-to-peer network, four used Imesh, two used Grokster, one used WinMix and one was on BearShare.

 

The BPI said some were parents and it was "highly likely" they settled on behalf of their children.

 

"Some parents have been genuinely shocked to discover what their children have been up to," the organisation, which represents major record companies in the UK, said.

 

The compensation payments will go back to music copyright holders. The music industry sees illegal downloading as theft and has blamed it for falling CD sales.

 

The BPI said its cases were more about "deterrence than compensation". The UK action follows thousands of lawsuits against "pirates" in the US.

 

The BPI said the global campaign led to a 45% decline in activity on the most popular file-sharing network, Fast Track, which is used by Kazaa, since its peak in April 2003.

 

Since then, legal alternatives such as Apple's iTunes and the new incarnation of Napster have also sprung up and become popular with fans.

 

Three more alleged file-sharers are still in negotiations with the BPI and those cases may go to court.

 

Mr Taylor said: "We have no desire to drag people through the courts. So we have attempted to reach fair settlements where we can.

 

"We hope people will now begin to get the message that the best way to avoid the risk of legal action and paying substantial compensation is to stop illegal file-sharing, and to buy music online, safely and legally, instead."

 

In October, the BPI announced it was pursuing 28 people. But they related to 28 IP addresses and it was later discovered that two people accounted for four IP addresses on their list.

[Guest Christian Rules]

Theres nothing wrong with piracy. The stars are still making their money.

 

Noel Gallagher said he doesnt mind his fans getting oasis albums on a pirate copy as long as they buy the original when it comes out. I totally agree with that.

 

For instance I would rather pay 2 pound fifty for a copy of colin mcrae rally than buy the original for 40 pound. I would have went mad if I paid full price for that.

[Guest Kakarot]

Your kinda condradicting yourself surely. Your saying it's OK as long as you still buy the original. Which means you should still pay 40 quid for Mcrae.

 

Anyway, I would be pretty p*ssed if I made an album or movie or something and guys were getting them for free. Also, it means people who dont break the law are worse off than those who break it, because there paying tons more for music. How is that fair?

[Guest Christian Rules]

Your kinda condradicting yourself surely. Your saying it's OK as long as you still buy the original. Which means you should still pay 40 quid for Mcrae.

 

Anyway, I would be pretty p*ssed if I made an album or movie or something and guys were getting them for free. Also, it means people who dont break the law are worse off than those who break it, because there paying tons more for music. How is that fair?

 

Good point, I did contradict myself.

 

My second comment is the one I will stick by then. I buy copied playstation games frequently, for 2 pound fifty a game I get more moneys worth. For instance games like LMA Manager 2005 totally suck but hey, I only paid 2 pund fifty, but if I had paid 40 quid I would be cheesed off.

[Guest Kakarot]

So it's OK to pirate if the game/cd in question sucks. Somehow I can't see that one holding up in court. Obviously having all games the same price is kinda stupid. Some (GTA for example) I would hapily pay 50 quid for, wheras some crappy ripoff game I wouldn't. But it's still all about peoples opinions. You may think it sucks, but others, like me for example, love LMA. The point is the price is fixed, everyone should pay the same for it. Otherwise you get punished for not breaking the law.

[Guest Christian Rules]

Im not a millionaire, I work 20 hours a week for 135 quid. So I would rather buy dvds and games for 2 quid fifty than pay the proper prices.

 

If i was loaded I would buy the proper versions. Also if it is great I will buy it on original too.

[Guest Mr Dragon]

a

[Guest Jung]

Yeah, everyone says the artists get little money off the albums cause of it. Well they get little money off the albums anyway. The only people who lose some money is the big huge giant record companies. And anyway, if u download a CD you truly like, you'll prolly buy the album anyway and then like that band, which means u may pay for merchandise/other cd's/see them live etc. Thus surely they've made a new fan out of you.

 

Although I do agree with the people who've been busted. I don't think personal downloading is terrible, but if you put thousands on a server for people to download from, then you're bound to get in trouble, as your giving away unlicensed music which you don't own.

[Guest Taki]

With music being as high priced as it is and the majority of big music buyers being students and young people its no wonder they would rather download than buy it, I download a lot of my music maily because I cant afford to go pay £15 for an album.

 

xXx

[Guest Trash]

With music being as high priced as it is and the majority of big music buyers being students and young people its no wonder they would rather download than buy it, I download a lot of my music maily because I cant afford to go pay £15 for an album.

 

xXx

 

Yeah I agree. I do buy albums though if they're decent enough. Like recently I bought Thunder - Magnificent Seventh and Boston - greatest Hits.

But a lot of tracks I have downloaded off the internet. Because its easy and fast. I can get what I want without spending a tenner.

Music is wayyy to expensive these days. HMV are the worst, they charge 15-17 quid for an album, whereas Music Zone's CD's are mostly under a tenner.

I dont put music up, but say if I fancy a song then I can just get it easily.

I have bought a lot of music now, I have close to 100 albums.

I dont upload music however.

Plus if I like a track then I'm more likely to buy the album.

[Guest Walshy]

Theres nothing wrong with piracy. The stars are still making their money.

 

No their not, if everyone downloads an album then the artists get no money, also if you download singles/albums then the record companies have no idea on how popular a band are so are more likely to not promote them or even drop them.

 

If you buy piracy DVD's and games then you are taking money away from the developers and distributers, again if everyone got FM2005 or Burnout 3 on pirate then the company wouldn't make any money, so there would be no more games from them, imgine if this happened for every game? Within a year the gaming industry could be gone! Again with DVD's, people get the fake DVD rather than going to see it at the pictures, so the film doesn't make a profit, so the film maker doesn't make another film, imagine if that had happened with Tarrentino!

 

As for them referring to it as stealing, well it is, your taking away the music industries money, you stealing the artists livelyhood, its the same as someone offering the job you do to people for free, so you make no money.

[Guest Mr Dragon]

a

[Guest Jung]

As I said most artists don't care, cause they barely make any money off the albums anyway. If downloading means people having more knowledge of a band, and gaining a new fan from them going to gigs, buying merch as I said, then they make more money, cause most bands will make most money off merchandise, and touring.

 

Record companies will know how popular bands are through, gigs, marketing, television, internet, and downloading won't affect that in the slightest.