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Music File-Sharers Face Biggest Round Of Legal Actions Yet
The biggest wave of legal actions against internet music file-sharers was announced today, with new cases launched against 963 individuals in 11 countries across Europe and Asia. Today's actions extend the policy of suing alleged illegal file-sharers to four new countries in Europe - Netherlands, Finland, Ireland and Iceland. They join Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and the UK, who all began litigation in the last year. The first Asian country to take legal action, Japan, has also announced today that it is joining the battle against online music piracy. The Japanese market has been hit hard by internet piracy and other factors in recent years losing 30% of its value (200 billion yen or US$1.8 billion) between 2000 and 2004. The new wave of lawsuits, coordinated by IFPI on behalf of its more than 1,450 member record companies, affects users not just of the KaZaA network (KaZaA, KaZaA Lite, iMesh), but also those on newer file-sharing services including eDonkey and eMule, various Gnutella services (Bearshare, Limewire, OpenNap, WinMX and Winny, DirectConnect, and BitTorrent. Caught: a German judge, a French cook, a British councillor One year after the recording industry first launched criminal and civil lawsuits against offenders in Europe, 248 people have faced sanctions or paid fines or compensation averaging more than €3,000 each. They are predominantly city-dwelling men aged 20-35, in occupations from company directors to car salesmen and teachers to truck-drivers. Those who are paying the price of piracy include a German judge, a French cook and a British local councillor. They have all uploaded top chart hits, in numbers ranging from a few hundred to tens of thousands. 9,900 cases have been brought to date in the US. This brings the total number of lawsuits to have been launched internationally to 11,552. Campaign makes an impact IFPI also showed latest evidence that campaign is having an impact. The number of music files downloaded in Germany fell sharply in 2004, down 35% to 382 million files compared to 602 million the previous year. The German music market has suffered worst from illegal file-sharing, and seen more legal actions, than any other country in Europe. The survey of 10,000 respondents was conducted by GFK on behalf of IFPI Germany in March. KaZaA, which used to be the largest and most popular file-sharing service, has seen its user figures drop by approximately 45% (from 4.2 million to 2.3 million concurrent users) since the start of the warning and litigation campaign. More waves of legal actions in more countries will follow, IFPI warned today. Industry bodies in Spain and Sweden - both heavily hit by piracy with falls in sales of 12.5% and 18% in the last year - are sending instant message warnings to people who appear to be distributing music illegally on file-sharing networks. To date, a total of more than 12 million such warnings have been sent to individuals on file-sharing services in 12 countries outside the US. Further evidence of the impact of the campaign includes: * A noticeable effect on file-sharing figures despite the growth of broadband penetration. Overall, the number of infringing music files on the internet dropped from its peak of 1.1 billion in April 2003 to 870 million in January 2005, a drop of 21%. In the same time period global broadband penetration grew by 75%, from 80 million to 140 million households worldwide. * Legal online music services have experienced exponential growth in the last year, with music fans downloading well over 200 million tracks in 2004 in the US and Europe - up from about 20 million in 2003. The number of online sites where consumers can buy music legally is now well above 150 in Europe and over 230 globally, up from only 50 a year ago. * A key change in public attitudes towards illegal file-sharing. Thanks to a range of public information campaigns, internet advertising, artist campaigns, instant messaging and the lawsuits, seven out of ten people in Europe know that file-sharing without the copyright holder's permission is illegal. John Kennedy, IFPI Chairman and CEO said: "One year of lawsuits, which were taken to stop the theft of music, is not a particularly joyous anniversary to be celebrating. But when you look at the impact the campaign has had over the last year, there are good reasons to be optimistic. "Today, people across Europe can be in no doubt that uploading copyrighted music on to file-sharing networks is against the law, affects jobs, investment in music and livelihoods, and carries the risk of financial penalties. We have spent two years raising public awareness of this, and ignorance really is no longer an excuse. "Around the world, people sued come from all walks of life. We didn't choose them - they chose themselves by the extent of their uploading. It doesn't give me any pleasure to say that some offenders have had to pay substantial damages. However they ignored all the warnings, and have regretted it since. I hope that people are learning from the experiences of those who decided not to buy their music legally. "And there can be no doubt the campaign is having an impact. File-sharing is being contained: traffic on P2P networks which would have spiralled out of control a year ago has, in fact, began to slow down. Meanwhile legal ways of enjoying music online have taken off. People have begun to explore and enjoy the legal online music market in earnest." The profile of 248 European file-sharers: The online music pirate comes in many guises. IFPI's first analysis of the litigation targets shows the following: * Age/Gender: Most of the cases involve file-sharers aged 25 to 35, with a very small minority number under 20. Over two thirds are men. * Occupation: There is a very wide range of occupations, including teaching and other professions, public sector workers, technology workers and students. There is a tendency towards IT-related professions, but settlements have also involved a judge, a doctor, a cook, a nurse, a truck driver, a car salesman, a DJ, a company director and a local councillor. * Dwelling: Most live in large towns and cities. * What they uploaded: predominantly top 50 chart hits in numbers ranging from a few hundred to tens of thousands of tracks. The largest case involved an uploader of 56,000 tracks in France - equivalent to over 5,000 CD albums. * Typical excuses: "My kids did it, I wasn't aware what they were up to"; "KaZaA is 100% legal, I don't understand why I'm being sued"; "I only used KaZaA to catalogue and play my music"; "I'm not a major uploader"; "I should pay less as I limited it to one download at any one time"; "Others upload more than me: I'm being victimized", "Why are there no warnings on the KaZaA website?"; "I knew it was illegal but it was easy, and it was free".
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