British and American recording industry groups have added their support to an international coalition's campaign to shut down Internet sites that illegally distribute copyrighted music.
The British Phonographic Industry and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) released statements Thursday reinforcing the efforts of the International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI).
IFPI, which has members including the big five record labels EMI, BMG, Sony, Universal, Warner, and 1400 record producers and distributors in 70 countries, released a statement earlier Thursday "announcing actions against hundreds of infringing sites in more than 20 countries worldwide."
"Today's internet pirates are making available – illegally – a huge range of music from top international acts such as Madonna and Celine Dion to national chart-topping artists singing local language repertoire ... the IFPI estimates that there are presently some 1 million illegal music files posted on the Internet...."
The IFPI said it will target two groups: "people who are uploading infringing material onto the Internet commonly in the MP3 format – to be downloaded for free or for payment; and Internet service providers who may be hosting illegal Web sites and ignoring warning letters informing them that these sites are infringing copyright."
Frank Creighton, the RIAA's Director of Anti-Piracy, announced the group's support of the IFPI announcement, stating that "Internet piracy is no different than producing counterfeit compact discs. Theft of creative rights is neither fair nor legal, no matter how you do it, and we have been working aggressively to protect the rights of artists and recording companies on and offline."
The RIAA has had an anti-piracy campaign underway for some time, and has been sending out cease and desist letters to illegal MP3 sites to shut them down. More recently, the RIAA has started to contact ISPs to get the names of site owners who have posted illegal files. In addition, the RIAA has initiated civil suits against some of the offenders.
"We have filed civil suits against five Internet music pirates," said Susan Lewis, a spokeswoman for the RIAA. "In three of the cases, we received injunctions which stopped their illegal activity, and in two of the cases in addition to permanent injunctions, we also received some monetary damages, and the defendants also were required to perform some community service."
Lewis and Creighton both said that their efforts have helped reduce the amount of pirated music available on the Net.
The BPI's statement seemed more concerned with the moral implications of music piracy than the legal and economic aspects.
The BPI said it will specifically target music sites that use pornography as an advertising vehicle, and claimed that music pirates on the Net are "luring users to sites using the names of stars, but then are forcing the user to watch horrific scenes of teenage sex as part of the process of accessing the illegal music for downloading."
"It has always been the case that piracy has links with pornographers and organized crime. I am afraid nothing has changed in the Internet age," said Emma Fanning of the BPI, in a statement. "But what is most repellent about this is that it is clearly likely to attract the younger user." Fanning said the BPI will aggressively track down and remove all illegal sites, "taking the firmest legal action if need be."
Britain has strict laws concerning pornography, and last July a British judge ruled that content of American Web sites could be subject to British jurisdiction.
The BPI statement also suggested that search engines that lead users to MP3 sites would also be prosecuted. Paul Stevens of Olswang, solicitor to the BPI, said in the statement, "Proceedings will not only be launched against the pirates, but also against those companies that enable pirates to operate by telling users where to locate the pirated material."
Sarah Roberts, a spokeswoman for the BPI, said that her group has not targeted any search engines to date, but may do so in the future.
"If it was a search engine based in the UK that was guilty of hosting these kinds of sites, then we would consider [legal action]."
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