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File-sharing lawsuits hit 5,500 more
Postie gets his collar felt

By Reuters

Published: Tuesday 04 April 2006

The music industry has launched a new wave of lawsuits and criminal proceedings against file sharers across Europe.

About 2,000 cases were launched Tuesday in 10 countries, the IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) said, bringing the total to 5,500 people in 18 countries.

That figure does not include the US, covered by its sister group the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), which has filed about 18,000 lawsuits.

Among the countries targeted was Portugal, where sales of physical formats like CDs have slumped by 40 per cent in the past four years amid heavy file-sharing usage, especially by college students.

Others targeted for legal action included a Finnish carpenter, a British postman, a Czech IT manager and a German judge, the federation said.

"A large number of cases involve men aged between 20 and 35 and parents who have not heeded successive education and warning campaigns," the federation stated.

In Italy authorities have seized more than 70 computers in the search for evidence of illegal file-sharing.

The federation's legal proceedings were aimed not at people who illicitly downloaded music but "uploaders" who put copyrighted music onto file-sharing networks.

The federation said last week that digital music sales soared in 2005, but not enough to make up for a continuing decline in physical formats like CDs, sending total sales down three per cent.