RSSIFPI Sues 8,000 P2P File Swappers
By Nate Mook | Published October 17, 2006, 12:17 PM
The International Federation for the Phonograph Industry has issued a new round of lawsuits against peer-to-peer file sharers across the globe, suing 8,000 individuals in 17 countries. This includes the first cases filed in Brazil, Mexico and Poland.
According to the IFPI, over 1 billion songs were illegally downloaded in Brazil last year, and music sales have dropped in half since 2000, when P2P file trading began to take off. A combination of criminal and civil lawsuits are aimed at those "uploaders" who make available hundreds or thousands of songs for sharing.
File sharing networks targeted include BitTorrent, eDonkey, DirectConnect, Gnutella, Limewire, SoulSeek and WinMX, the IFPI said. Countries involved in the latest wave of lawsuits are Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Singapore and Switzerland.
The IFPI, which works with the RIAA in the United States, has filed over 13,000 legal actions outside of the U.S. that have brought in average legal settlements of 2,420 euros.
"Around the world many people have already paid a heavy price for their illegal file-sharing. They all thought they were unlikely to be caught, but teachers, postal workers, IT managers, scientists and people in a host of other occupations, as well as parents, have ended up having to dig deeply into their pockets," remarked IFPI chairman John Kennedy.
The group says it is making progress in its war on P2P networks, adding that fear of spyware and viruses has proved a major deterrent. Education has also helped inform children about the risks involved, and the IFPI claims that 67 percent of people feel lawsuits have helped reduce illicit file sharing.
"In each of the 17 countries involved in today's actions there are legal music services available to consumers. There is no excuse. People should understand that they can be caught whatever network they are using. The next time a series of law suits are announced you could be on the receiving end if you are an illegal file-sharer," Kennedy added.
Sue the church for free prayer sharing!
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|What's next? Sue the creators of the mIRC and FTP protocols? This is BS and everyone should know that by now.
For example if person X shoots person Y with a gun, it's not the creator of the gun's fault that the X shot someone. Person X would be the criminal, the gun would just be the tool used in the crime.
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|Let's sue the authors: they are in the origin of this all snd for that they are the real culprits. "Causa causae causa malefactorum est" (the one who is the cause of something is also the one who has to be blamed for the consequences of that). Let us forbid civilisation: bussiness and only bussiness is what matters.
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|ha ha ha. regarding hiyoag's comments. yeah. after Napster shut down the first tim my best friend and me hit up the public library to see what kind of awesome music we could find. the two of us easily borrowed over 100 cds that summer. only works if you have a library worth anything though.
by the way, even though I was a fervant napster user back in the day, most music I found on there was no-name artists that most people I know hadn't heard of before. and yeah, if it was good I'd go out and buy the cd.
I still say online audio and video files promote people trying/buying new and cool stuff that we might not have given two cents about before.
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|its still way too easy. They can shut the companies down that produce and back the software but free alternatives will continue to be released and take off. This is a war they will never win. Sure a few thousand people will take hits. But when lets just say the edonkey network alone has 5 million people online at any given time. A few thousand isn't going to make a dent.
If you don't settle I wonder what would happen? I heard if someone simply challenges the evidence it gets thrown out almost immediately. Open wifi connection is the best defense I have heard thus far that actually worked.
Now the entire world is catching on to file sharing its no longer just the u.s. If file sharing is having such a dramatic affect on music sales then why are they still posting profits? I mean everyone knows all the money in the industry goes to the big wigs on the board and at the very bottom is the artists who make majority of their money on concerts and t s***s.
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|Hurrah for us nice legal brits ... :P
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|I thought it said PORNographic....
Phew...I thought I was going to have to pay for my "adult content."....lol
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|Yeah same here, hehe.
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|I found this really cool place that has Music, Movies, Books...it's all FREE!!!
They call it a public library. Stuff it RIAA!
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|The material available at a library is licensed. Shared copyrighted files are not. Your point?
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|I think his point is that you can get those "licensed" Movie DVD's & Music CD's and copy them for free.
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|No. You can't. You can only do that if you have no conscience and no problem breaking the law.
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|I do to have a conscience. I feel like cr*p for pulling the tag off my gilfriends mattress and drinking alcohol before I was 21.
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|"The group says it is making progress in its war on P2P networks..."
why do they need to classify this as a war?
"...adding that fear of spyware and viruses has proved a major deterrent."
hmmmm,
could the IFPI have planted these "deterrents"?
:-p
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|I wouldn't put it past them to plant viruses and spyware.
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|Always amused when they bring up the virus and spyware card.
IMHO Pretty much all respectable clients have been malware free for years. And if you pay attention you shouldn't get any of that crap from downloaded files either.
Heck, if you do get any malware from p2p usage, it pretty much serves you right for being an idiot.
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|Nice a WAR being waged by a non-government.. that sounds like something I heard before??
al-Qaeda is waging a war and they are not a government...
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|Big deal. Be careful, don't download ilegal stuff.
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|Pirates... serves them right.
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|What still no Canadians lol
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|lol
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|*Phew*
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