LONDON, England (Reuters) — The music industry, fighting an intense battle to stop a worldwide slide in sales, have unleashed its first wave of international lawsuits against Internet song-swappers.
Writs are being issued against 247 individuals in Italy, Germany, Denmark and Canada. The industry vowed more countries will be added to the dragnet in coming weeks.
Music trade group, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) alleges those targeted put hundreds, even thousands of tracks on Internet file-sharing services such as Kazaa and WinMX for others to download.
The industry blames the extensive trade of free music on the Internet for contributing to a five-year slide in music sales and believes that unless it threatens the biggest file traders — or “uploaders” — with lawsuits, music fans will never buy songs on the Internet in meaningful amounts.
Full Story Here
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/03/30/music.lawsuits.reut/index.html
Related
- Pay, Don’t Sue, Song-Swappers, Trade Group Urges
- Court Rejects RIAA Request to Identify Song Swappers
- European RIAA-style anti-file swap lawsuits ‘inevitable’
- Music industry preps more lawsuits
- Flowerburger Records Petitions UK Parliament to Stop P2P Lawsuits
