UK music to ’sue online pirates’

CD sales have been in decline

The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is to announce it is targeting “major uploaders” – those who make music available to share free with others.

Music file-sharers have been blamed for a decline in world-wide CD sales.

The BPI’s actions follow that of its US counterpart which is already suing those it calls the worst offenders.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) began issuing lawsuits seeking compensation from alleged downloaders in 2003.

However, the legal action comes as the UK music industry reports rising sales of both CDs and singles.

The BPI and the International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI) is joining forces to announce new measures to tackle the problem in the UK.

Warning messages

The BPI warned in March it would take legal action against users of peer-to-peer music services, which allow people to swap tracks online.

It has since sent thousands of internet messages to desktops warning people the song-swapping sites they were using were being watched.

Q&A: Will I be sued?

The BPI believes a hardcore 15% of file-sharers are responsible for 75% of all illegal music downloading.

The popularity of music downloading largely caught the music industry by surprise, meaning it has been playing catch-up in the fight to tackle it.

But now there are many legal download sites, where users pay for the music and the money goes back to the recording artists.

But media analyst Simon Dyson, of the Informa Group, said it could be difficult to change the habits of a whole generation.

“There are some kids that have probably never bought a CD,” he told BBC Breakfast.

“They started downloading when they were 11 or 12 and they have never bought a CD. It’s going to be a problem for the BPI to turn those around because it’s obviously not something they have done before so getting them into buying CDs is going to be difficult.”

“But there’s no excuse for downloading music illegally,” he added.

BBC correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones said critics would ask whether firms should be suing their customers.

The BPI says single sales have more than halved in the UK since 1999, when downloading took off – despite research suggesting it has a minimal effect on sales.